LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




\EV. xJAMES 



AVENS, 



ONE OF THE HEROES 



OF 



Indiana Methodism. 



By rev. W, AV. HIBBEN. 



Mr. Havens was one of the most powerful preachers I ever heard, and I 
have no hesitation in saying that tjie State of Indiana owes him a heavier 
debt of gratitude for the efibrts of his long and valuable life, to form society 
upon the basjs of Morality. Education, and Religion, than any other man living 
or dead," Hon. Oliver H. Smith, 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

SENTINEL COMPANY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 

1 872. 



36030 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 
By Rev. W, W, HIBBEN, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C, 



DEDICATORY. 



To the memories of those who laid the foundations of the 
moral edifice, the early Pioneer Heroes of Indiana Methodism, 

• THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 

The music of their songs should never be forgotten, and the 
nobility of their sacrifices, like the integrity of their faith, 
should endure forever; 



PREFATORY. 



The venerable moral hero of this book merited a far richer 
monument than we have built for him: but with what material 
we could get, we have done the best we could, and we place our 
effort before the public, confident of their indulgence as we are 
of our own purposes and sincerity. 

Our object has been to do justice to the man and to furnish 
to his friends some abiiling evidence of his honesty and useful- 
ness. of his goodness and greatness. 

What AYO have said of him has heen written fearlessly, and 
with no disposition to conceal his defects or to magnify his 
virtues. AVe have always remembered that he was but a man. 

"What v\-e have said of others was forced upon us l:>y their own 
relationships, and in this connection their fraternal recognition 
was a matter of dttty as well as of justice. 

To live forever in the world of exam^Dle was the well earned 
honor of otir 2Tand old itinerant, and as we here present him, 
we rely more on the fame of the nuan, the Christian, and Gospel 
minister, to sustain the work, than we do, or can, on the accom- 
plishment of our own perf':>rmance. 

THE AUTHOK. 



CONTENTS. 



Pagf.. 

Chapter I. IJis Early Years 9 

Chapter II. Christian Character 20 

Chapter III. Domestic Habits 30 

Chapter IV. Personal Economy ,,,,, 39 

Chapter Y. Character of his Friendships , 49 

Chapter YI. His Moral Firmness 59 

Chapter YII. Heroic Spirit , 69 

Chapter YIIE Knowledge of Men 78 

Chapter IX. His Opposition to Innovations 87 

Chapter X. Devotion to Methodism 97 

Chapter XL Preparation for the Pulpit 107 

Chapter XII. Style of his Preaching 116 

Chapter XIII. Character as a Revivalist 126 

Chapter XIY. Ministerial Success 136 

, Chapter XY. Personal Popularity , 146 

Chapter XYI. His Generalship 157 

ChajPter XYII. Liberality of Sentiment 167 

"Chapter XYIII. Patriotism 177 

Chapter XIX. His Orthodoxy 188 

Chapter XX. Peculiar Oratory 199 

Chapter XXI. Ohio Confreres 209 

Chapter XXII. Indiana Cotemporaries 220 



8 

Page. 



Chapter XXIII. His Local Ministry , 231 

Chapter XXI Y. His Circuits 242 

Chapter XXV. Stations 253 

Chapter XXVI. Districts, and Character as Pres. Elder. 263 

Chapter XXVII. Misconceptions of the Man 274 

Chapter XXVIII. Itinerant Eeview 285 

Chapter XXIX. Superannuated Years 296 

Chapter XXX. Character and Death of his Wife 306 

Chapttr XXXI. His own Demise 317 

Chapter XXXII. Funeral Obsequies 327 

Chapter XXXIII. fjis Monument , 33B 



REY, JAMES HAVENS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HIS EARLY YEABS* 

The log cabins of the West have been the birth- 
places of many of our pioneer heroes, whose subsequent 
renown have placed them among the foremost of our 
American citizens. From many of these primitive 
dwelling places of the early settlers have come the 
distinguished orator, the eminent jurist, and many of 
our ablest and most useful ministers. The obscurity 
of their origin could not becloud their genius, as the 
defectiveness of their education failed to fetter their 
destinies. What nature had done for them was on a 
liberal scale, without stint or limit; and though rough 
and awkward, they were still the children of genius, as 
they w^ere of the wilderness. Partaking of the nature 
of the soil on which they were born, they grew up to 
manhood erect and stately as their native forest trees, 
and felt their strength to be that of men, who should 
fear no danger, or shrink in the presence of the proud- 
est foe. Deprived of the higher advantages of social 
and scholastic life, they yet learned, even in their youth 
that honor was the basis of all true manhood, and truth 
2 



10 

1 

the foundation of substantial integrity. It was such 
convictions as these which gave them so frequently 
honor and eminence^ and filled their lives so full of 
the lessons of instructive history. Every hill and dale 
of their native forests abounded with legends of Indian 
life^ and these stories of valor and romance which were 
so often told them^ gave to the spirits of the youthful 
pioneers especially^ that high and noble darings which^ 
to a greater or less extent, marked the after years of 
their histories. The hardships of the hunter^s life 
developed their muscular systems to their fullest per- 
fection, and the bold daring of their wild adventures 
made them familiar with dangers, and often led them 
to risk their lives in perilous chases, where timidity 
and cowardice w^ould have shrunk back as if shaken 
with terror. Every hill and valley around them had 
its story of their adventurous experiences; and the 
beautiful summer freshness of their wilderness homes 
gave them a love of cabin life, which could not be 
blotted from their memories or lost in their imagery. 
With such men dangers Avere not embarrassments, and 
obstacles were but seldom impediments; for no matter 
what might come or threaten, 

" They nobly dared the wildest storm, 
And stemmed the hardest gale; 
As brave of heart and strong of arm, 
They roamed o^er hill and dale." 

To write the history of these early pioneers at this 
late day, we must gather fragments from a thousand 
battle fields, where physical action was considered lifers 
highest virtue, and the true and the bold, the unselfish 



11 

• 

and heroic^ were alone honored with the coronets of 
distinction. 

But few of the life-stories of these foundation-build- 
ers of our western civilization have ever been written. 
But if they had been^ their thrilling originality and 
grand personal achievements would^ doubtless^ have 
given them a place of prominence on the shelves of 
historical connoisseurs^ as sacred as any of our Ameri- 
can classics. What these men were in their simple 
combinations, and in the circles of their primitive 
society, may be gathered in part from the many broken 
sketches which have been gleaned, here and there, by 
a few of our western authors. But in thousands of 
instances, unfortunately, the individual hero had no 
historian to tell his tale, and the consequence was that 
his virtues were interred with his bones. 

With the cabin for their birthplace and the wilder- 
ness for their college, these uncouth sons of the forest 
grew up to manhood, knowing nothing of book learn- 
ing, and never dreaming of the important part they 
were playing in the grand march of our civilization. 

Acute and simple, and as confiding, as they were 
heroic and daring, they were even in their natural vir- 
tues just such samples of our countrymen, as we who 
have succeeded them, should never cease to remember. 
For, humble and obscure as were their birthplaces, 
they were not disposed to forget them. Their young 
imaginations had pictured them in their hearts as 
wilderness grottos, whose beauty and finish were more 
complete and nearer the order of nature than any 



12 

Corinthian embellishment they ever subsequently scru- 
tinized. The reminiscent lines of Hood — 

" I remember, I remember, 
The house where I was born ; 
The little window where the sun 
Came peeping in at morn." 

Were expressive of the religious reverence these cabin- 
born heroes of the West had for their early homes. 
Such impressions of childhood are indeed apt to be 
indelible^ and with most men they are associated with 
life's j)urest^ brightest and happiest pictures. In them 
they felt the first breath of a mother's love beat upon 
their bosoms, and there they learned the manly daring 
of a father's bravery. There they drank their first love 
of social life as it burst from the tender hearts of broth- 
ers and sisters, whose memories, like the dying tones of 
a mother's voice, lingered in their memories till life's 
latest hour. 

It was in one of these humble tenements, in Mason 
county, Kentucky, where the subject of this tribute 
was born in the year 1791. 

The whole western country, at that time, was more 
or less agitated with the gloomy threats of Indian dep- 
redations, and the defeats of Harmer and St. Clair had 
given to the scattered inhabitants a general trepidation, 
which made many fear a total devastation of the coun- 
try. Mothers were alone with their cliildren, while 
their husbands and older sons were out on the Indian 
path, in defence of the country. The day, indeed, was 
a dark one, and the clouds were ominous and fearful, 
for the wild tongue of rumor was uttering a thousand 



13 



stories of danger^ and the well known barbarities of 
the savage foe were dreaded by the helpless and the 
innocent^ whose fruitful imaginations needed no exag- 
gerations to picture out even the most threatening dan- 
gers. 

Many sleepless nights were spent around their cabin 
fires^ by these wilderness families^ recounting the hair 
breadth escapes of the heroes of the ^Yest^ which were 
vividly remembered by their children. 

Mr. Havens^ mother being the daughter of a Baptist 
minister^ her religious confidence in the divine protec- 
tion gave her assurance of safety which many others 
did not possess^ and being a good singer she kept the 
candle of daylight burning in her cabin home by her 
cheerful spirit and pious song, and by this means quieted 
her children^ and doubtless impressed them with sen- 
timents of the divine protection which followed them 
through their future years. 

The influence of such a mother can never be weighed 
or measured. Her impressions upon her children are 
those of the Divinity^ and can not well be obliterated ; 
for they are the first touches upon the heart of the 
types of life^ and are imprinted with the ink of love 
which goes to the souk as with the power of an eternal 
covenant. 

It was the misfortune of Mr. Havens^ however^ to 
lose this mother when he was yet but a little more 
than twelve years of age^ a loss which he never ceased 
to mourn. For young as he was, he had learned to 
love her as the best friend of his life. The sunlight of 
her presence had made the brightest days of his youth, 



14 



and when it was told him that she was dead^ it seemed 
to him the sun itself had gone out forever. His young 
heart could scarcely realize that she was no more, and 
he fed himself with the belief that her pure spirit^ 
though unseen^ would be his angel guardian^ until like 
her, he should give his body to the worms, and his soul 
to God who gave it. To a poor, ignorant boy, how 
sad is such a calamity ! How pungent and painful the 
sorrow ! How deep, and irretrievable the bereave- 
ment ! It is like the thunder shock, and the lightning 
flash, which bears death on its stroke, and leaves but 
a single heart to feel the curse. Such a sudden exit 
seems to be as the burning wrath of the Omnipotent 
One — which none can read, but which all are com- 
pelled to bow to. 

We remember, when many long years had rolled 
over Mr. Havens^ head, on one occasion, at the house 
of a friend, where he was stopping, he took up the 
poems of Cowper, and with evident emotions, he read 
those inimitable lines : 

" My Mother ! when I learned that thou was't dead, 
Say was't thou conscious of the tears I shed ? 
Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, 
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun ? 
Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unfelt, a kiss ; 
Perhaps a tear, if souPs can weep in bliss— 
Ah, that Maternal smile ! it answers. Yes." 

Then closing his eyes to hide his tears, and laying 
down the book, he said : If I had been capable of 
writing when my own dear mother died, I would 
have written just such sentiments as Cowper has, for 
no poor boy ever loved his mother better than I did.^^ 



15 



'^^^e looked at the venerable pilgrim, as he stood 
before us on that occasion, moved, as he was, by the 
a\Yakened love of a mother's memory, who had been 
in her grave for more than half a century, and we 
could but admire his sublimated emotions, and place a 
still higher estimate upon his Christian character. The 
feeling had in it the kindredship of the heavenly, and 
bore living testimony of the filial constancy of the aged 
veteran. 

As was natural, a year or two after his mother^s 
death, his father married again — when Mr. Havens, 
then a boy of fourteen, determined to make his home, 
for the future, with an elder brother, who lived in the 
State of Ohio. In a few weeks, after making some 
preparation, and vdth his father's consent, he accom- 
plished his purpose. His brother was but an humble 
farmer, but, of course, could find some work for an 
energetic and well developed lad; and in the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, which was then so primitive, he 
occupied his time, never once thinking for a moment 
but it would be the calling of his life. 

The work of a farm always affords wholesome exer- 
cise and greatly favors the development of muscular 
strength and energy, and it was here, while yet in his 
teens, that he became known for his cool and calcula- 
ting agility, as well as for that adventurous daring 
which showed he was a stranger to fear. The sports of 
those days were chiefly muscular ; but no matter what 
they were, or where they led him, ^'our young Ken- 
tuck,'' as the boys frequently termed him, always 
evinced such spirit as showed he was to the manor 



16 



born/^ Physical education^ and development^ were the 
only fashions of the times^ and he that possessed them 
in their fullest capacity^ was^ as a matter of course^ the 
hero of the hour. Intellectual culture had then but 
few advocates^ and it was only rarely that a book of 
any sort was either seen or made use of. Consequently 
book learning was at a heavy discount^ and none 
seemed to care to have it otherwise. Reading and 
laziness were considered synonymous^ because but few 
of the inhabitants had ever realized the availability of 
either education or intelligence. Work was believed 
to be the only source of bread-makings and in that 
direction th^e whole community bent their energies. 
Of course^ as yet^ the schoolmaster was unknown among 
them^ and therefore it Avill not be thought strange that 
Mr. Havens grew to manhood^ with only the accom- 
plishment of being a very poor reader of his own ver- 
nacular. 

These misfortunes made the elements of youthful 
associations by which he was surrounded through all 
his younger years ; and we here offer them as a full 
and honorable apology for that acknowledged defi- 
ciency in his education — but for which, he doubtless, 
would have made one of the most prominent stars in 
the galaxy of the Christian ministry in the west. 

But hardy in constitution, as the oaks of his native 
forests, and governed as he always seemed to be by 
the conscientious ardor of the heroic virtues, he even 
in his youth had many thoughts far above his years. 
The teachings of his childhood had not been forgotten, 
and the death of his mother, at the tenderest period 



17 



of his history^ had kept alive the fires of a moral life^ 
^vhich taught him many of the lessons of his personal 
responsibility^ and in some degree prepared him for 
the great work of the future. 

The circumstances of the period may be somewhat 
comprehended when it is stated that the whole land 
was without churches or school houses_, and even the 
moral status of the people Avas both confused and 
indefinite. The only religious privileges of the country 
were an occasional sermon by some Methodist itiner- 
ant^ whose visits on a week day attracted but little 
attention^ as most of the people were bitterly preju- 
diced and many believed that all such men aimed at 
was to get money and to tie up the people in the free- 
dom of their privileges. It was not^ therefore^ strange 
that these Gospel pioneers often received more curses 
than blessings^ and were frequently threatened with mob 
law and the dubious adornment of a coat of tar and 
feathers. 

This moral monotony, however, was not destined to 
continue, for an event which occurred about this time 
took the entire country by surprise and resulted in such 
a change among the people as they had never witnessed 
before. A bold and stout young man^ the son of a 
Presbyterian minister^ had returned from a Kentucky 
camp meeting professing to be a converted sinner and 
a Methodist. He was full of zeal and fire^ and he 
went through the whole neighborhood telling the story 
of his conversion and holding prayer meetings, where 
the people crowded to hear him by hundreds, and in a 



18 



sliort time many others made a profession of their faith 
in Christy and a large society ^vas soon organized. 

Such a change was indeed marvelous in the eyes of 
many, for the young exhorter had for years stood 
among the foremost in wickedness, and had even won 
the sobriquet of The Xew Market Devil/' Every- 
body in the land knew James B. Finley, and they could 
scarcely believe their own senses when they saw him 
and heard his exhortations Foremost in sin, he was 
now at the head of the little band of Christians, and 
he led them to victory as if he had been a veteran. 

Among the converts under the exhorter ministry of 
Mr. Finley was James Havens, then but a boy of only 
fourteen summers, yet old enough to know that good- 
ness was essential to true happiness, and that a life of 
honor must be a life of virtue. Young as he was, his 
act of joining the church was doubtless the turning 
point of his life — the Rubicon of all his future fortunes. 
This new relation gave to his youthful mind the reflec- 
tions of a religious experience, while it imparted to his 
character the moral stamina of a fixed and decided 
purpose. 

With his new thoughts and happy change of feeling, 
he was so highly elated that he wished to return to his 
old home in Kentucky to tell his father what God had 
done for him. A few months afterward he started on 
foot for Kentucky, little dreaming that he was going- 
back to the place of his birth as a Christian Missionary; 
and yet it was so, for though the family were Baptists, 
they were only nominally in the church, ai^d when the 
new convert related his experience^ they were as much 



19 



surprised as if they had never made any profession. 
They thought the change Vy^as too sudden to be either 
genuine or permanent^ but yet they heard him tell his 
yrliole story Avithout any show of doubt or irreverence, 
because they saw that the boy was honest and sincere, 
and evidently believed that the work wrought within 
him was none other than the witness of the Spirit that 
he was a child of God. But simple as his story Avas^ it 
was not without its influence upon the family^ and even 
upon others, Avho heard him tell it a,Q:ain and again, for 
each new comer must hear it ; and thus, without any 
pretentions to anything more than a simple relation 
of his experience^ the boy became the preacher of the 
richest theory of philosophy and of life the world of 
sinners has ever heard. 

How often has the sentiment been uttered ^' that the 
boy is father to the man,'" and well it may be. for close 
observation will discover that the elements of character 
are often incorporated with the tenderest years, and 
that frequently genius flashes in the eyes of youth as 
flowers of beauty flourish in the bud. And yet, how 
strange is the intimation of either genius or character, 
particularly where it is concealed under the substratum 
of simplicity and ignorance, as innocent of either as if 
such things had never been. 

^Vhat we are we make ourselves, for neither genius 
nor character is ever forced upon us. Xature is always 
lavish of her gifts, but then moral principle demands 
the personal improvement of each endowment, and, 
therefore, he alone becomes great and good who im- 
proves the gift that is within him and diligently gives 
his life to the happiness and welfare of others. 



20 



CHAPTER II. 

CHEISTIAN CHARACTER. 

Would I describe a Preacher such as Paul, 
I would express him simple, grave sincere; 
In doctrine incorrupt ; in language plain, 
And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste, 
And natural in gesture." 

We believe it was Richard Baxter who made the 
remark ^^that the people looked at the Preacher six 
days in the week to see what he meant when he preached 
to them on Sunday. The declaration is doubtless a 
true one of any age and of any people, and therefore 
demands serious consideration in any effort which may 
be made in the delineation of Christian character^ and 
more particularly where the subject has been in the 
ministry. 

Many thousands have heard Father Havens preach 
who never knew him either as a man or as a Christian^, 
for he was emphatically the Preacher of the multitude^ 
and of course^ many never saw him except in the pul- 
pit. Therefore^ their observations were limited^ as to 
what he was, in those delicate traits and personal devel- 
opments which constitute the true man and the genuine 
and consistent Christian. But what he was in spirit^ 
principle, honor^ integrity and charity^ was well known 
among his friends^ for he wore no masks and assumed 
no pretensions, as he always scorned everything which 
bore even the type of hypocrisy. 

Peter Cartwright was once asked if he was ^^sancti- 



I 



21 

fied?^^ "Yes/' said he^ "I think I am — in spots.'' 
Father Havens had something of the same spirit of 
the distinguished and venerable Cartwright^ that is to 
say^ he was a little particular who led the class where 
he attended^ and besides this^ he was not always ready 
to hang out "his flag of personal purity/' if for no 
other reason, least he might cast his pearls before 
swine. The fact was, his religion was never gotten up 
for human inspection or show, or with any pharisaical 
purpose of building up a character of superior piety. 
He was willing for all men to judge him by his deeds, 
and, as he often used to say, " by the company he kept." 
He well knew that "birds of a feather would flock 
together." This w^as his own basis in his judgment of 
character, and of course he was willing to be judged 
by the same rule himself. 

With Mr. Havens, principle made the man infinitely 
above all the tricks of pious policy, no matter how 
sanctimonious might be their pretensions. Indeed, he 
was never the friend of any sort of silk or satin piety, 
and he always looked with contempt and pity upon 
any and every effort which smacked in the least of 
Pharisaism. Still, his opinions of men were not usually 
formed hastily, and his general habit was to judge them 
by their spirit and intentions rather than by their pro- 
fessions as it w^as these points he aimed to guard so 
particularly in himself. To always mean well, he 
thought was a happy "leaning toward virtue's side," 
and went a long ways to make a good character. This 
virtue he well exemplified in his own life, as he ever 
fearlessly evinced it both in his frankness and honesty. 



I 



22 

Simplicity was one of his prominent traits^ and those | 
Avho knew him best will readily accept of Webster's Ij 
definition of the term as being peculiarily characteris- 
tic. The distinguished Lexicographer could not have | 
hit the man^ or comprehended his Christian character \ 
better, than he has in his definitions, artless/' ^^unaf- j 
fected/' "inartificial/' "plain." Dr. Young has also | 
defined it as well, when he says : I 

" In simple manners all the secret lies." 

Though Mr. Havens had much about him of the 
stern dignity of a proud and noble manhood, his mien 
was never haughty or overbearing, for except when in 
the heat of an ardent contest, his spirit was much like 
that of a child; and but few men could be appealed to 
with better hopes of sympathy, or with stronger assur- : 
ances of assistance. Though he sometimes seemed to be 
almost vindictively eager to have the guilty punished, 
no compeer he ever had was more ready or willing to 
extend the sympathies of forgiveness, where there were j 
any reasonable evidence of sincere repentance. In this j 
respect he was as honorable as he was honest, for when \ 
he once uttered his forgiveness of an error, his treat- i 
ment of the delinquent was as kind and generous as if | 
the act had never been committed. His gentle nature 1 
and tender sympathies, associated as they always were ; 
with his strong and vigorous intellect, gave him that 
high and benignant character which so well became 
his profession, and enabled him to secure the respect ; 
and veneration of religious men of all denominations. ] 
Such, indeed, was the spirit and action and decided 



23 



character of the man and minister, and so firmly and 
sincerely did he demonstrate this in his religious pro- 
fession, that he never failed to command respect in any 
crowd. His very presence, indeed, as well as his con- 
versation, vindicated his Christian character on all occa- 
sions, and honored it as well as that of his ministerial 
office. 

His religion was never put on to serve a holiday, 
or to display any Sabbath appearances ; for what he 
was one day he was another, and whether at home 
or abroad, he seemed always to be conscientious in 
regard to the duties of his ministerial mission, and 
Aerefore, no matter how much of a stranger he was, 
he did not hesitate to bear his testimony against evil 
of any kind, or to admonish the erring, however prom- 
inent or distinguished. His ideas were, that the true 
Christian belonged to the grand army of the redeemed, 
and that no matter where he was, he was ever on duty, 
and therefore his obligations demanded that he should 
stand up for the right, and defend the cause of morals, 
even though some might think this battle-field was not 
a legitimate one. This peculiar disposition of his 
Christian character, did not grow out of any fondness 
he had for contention, for this was not his spirit; but 
it doubtless found its impulse in his personal independ- 
ence, and in his fearless opposition to all the vices and 
practices which, in his view, drew men down to perdi- 
tion. As an illustration of this trait in his Christian 
character, we here give the following little story, 
w4iich has been furnished us by one of his friends, who 



24 



vouches for its authenticity^ as he was present and wit- 
nessed the scene. 

In 1844^ Mr. Havens attended the General Confer- 
ence of his Churchy which was held in the city of Xew 
York — the memorable Conference which resulted in 
the division of the great Methodist body, and which 
is so often referred to as the most eventful of any in its 
history. The venerable Indiana minister and delegate 
had participated in the exciting scenes of the long and 
protracted sessions of that Conference, and had wit- 
nessed its mournful adjournment. Returning home by 
way of Pittsburg, in company with several other min- 
isters from the West, they took passage on board of 
one of the palatial steamers wiiich plied between that 
city and Cincinnati. On the first evening, after sup- 
per, he and several of his brethren were seated round 
a table in the cabin, when some four or five gentlemen 
approached and requested them, in no very polite man- 
ner, to vacate their seats, as they wished to take a game 
of cards. Two or three of Mr. Havens^ friends were 
inclined at once to obey the rather peremptory order 
and arose from their seats to seek some other quar- 
ters. 

Mr. Havens was reading, and although he heard the 
request of the gamblers, he paid no attention to it, and 
did not seemingly raise his eyes from his paper. After 
eyeing him intently for a moment, as though he w^as 
measuring his strength and muscular abilities, one of 
the gamblers — himself a large and powerful man — 
approached Mr. Havens and requested him to get up 
and give them the table. The old veteran raised his 



25 



head and looked at the intruder as if he \vas measuring 
him^ but said nothing. 

You had better move^ sir/^ said tlie impertinent 
intruder^ with a scowling frown. 

That will depend upon circumstances/' responded 
the brave old man. 

'*How so?^^ retorted the gambler^ with a fiercer 
scowl^ which he thought would frighten the old gentle- 
man. 

^- If you are a better man than I am^ sir/^ replied 
Mr. Havens, ^' it would probably be more prudent for 
me to obey your reqnest. but it looks to me as if that 
was a very doubtful point ; for I do not Jraoic/' he 
added^ that the Almighty has ever made a better man 
than- I am myself. 

This was said in so cool a manner and with so mnch 
earnest gravity, that the gambler shrank back as if he 

had waked up the wrong passenger;'^ for he saw that 
though his antagonist was a minister, the old hero 
appeared to have the St. Peter kind of religion^ and 
that^ on this occasion at least^ ^'discretion was the bet- 
ter part of valor. ^' 

The captain of the boat appearing just then, the 
affair Avas happily adjusted by his requesting the gamb- 
lers to withdraw to another part of the cabin, where he 
would accommodate them with another table. 

Who is that brave okl codger?"'* asked the gambler 
of the captain after he had taken his seat. 

AVhy,^^ said the captain^ ^' they tell me he is an old 
Hoosier Methodist Preacher. They call liim ^ Father 
3 



26 

* 

Havens/ and they say he is afraid of nobody but the 
Almighty/^ 

Father Havens sat and read his paper as if nothing 
had occurred^ but the crowd of gamblers appeared to 
be quite evidently disturbed^, and kept their eyes on the 
old " Hoosier Preacher ^' as long as he remained in the 
cabin. 

Incidents of this character we are aware^ with some 
do not affirm the highest Christian eminence^ but then 
they should remember that the heroic in moral life 
are often the essential instruments in making aggres- 
sions^ and that such spirits in many instances are found 
to do and dare where even the lamb-like are liable to 
flinch and falter. Then^ it should not be forgotten 
that Father Havens was a western pioneer and that the 
fields of his ministry were often pretty well supplied 
with that class of men who have been termed " the 
baser sort.^^ With this class^ indeed^ he often had to 
deal^ and through all his eventful ministry^ no instance 
ever occurred if it was within his power w^iere he failed 
to teach them a lesson or to command their respect. 
Father Havens was eminently a peaceable Christian^ and 
yet he did not believe in crying peace ! peace ! when 
there was no peace.^^ He well knew that there were 
many men who could not be held by silken cords or be 
quieted by the timid conservativeness of a non-com- 
bative submission^ and therefore^ while he hated war 
and despised contention^ he w^as nevertheless of the firm 
conviction that the rights of all Christians were^ at 
least^ as sacred as those of any others^ and hence^ should 



27 



be guarded Avith equal tenaciousness and care by every 
true believer. 

He was not of the conviction that the good man 
should spend all his breath in prayer^ or that he should 
profess by signs and sanctimonious pretensions that he 
was better than his neighbors. His theory of the 
Christian life was a practical one^ for he believed that 
a good deal of it should be spent for the v\'elfare of our 
fellow men^ as well as for ourselves^ personally. He 
did not understand the Christian character to imply 
either passive uselessness or cowardly conservativeness^ 
for the one he knew would suffer Christianity to per- 
ish for the want of aggressions, vrhile the other v>^ould 
hide itself amid the rocks while the wolves of a heart- 
less infidelity would tear it to tatters. 

Father Havens^ faith was eminently a practical one^ 
and as he believed^ worked directly for the heart's puri- 
fication. He did not embrace Christianity as a theory 
of moral problems merely^ for he believed it was a 
system of living principles^ which involved the true 
pith of all human civilizations, and was the only relig- 
ious system that would^ or could ^ lead mankind to the 
higher elevations of law and liberty^ or to the real 
greatness of any intellectual progression or national 
renov\'n. He therefore advocated a strict regard for 
all the minor virtues as well as the major^ as they were 
essential in the building up of any sort of true and 
genuine character. 

That he was sometimes led to doubt the religion of 
certain individuals was neither strano;e nor uncharitable 
as he alwavs believed that a Christian should be, and 



28 



was^ both frank and honest just in proportion as he 
was sincere and conscientious. These judgments were 
not designed by him to be harsh or even unkind^ he 
only aimed to think of others as he thought of himself^ 
and if^ at any time^ he became convinced that he had 
done any one injustice^ he was as prompt to retract his 
opinions of doubt or censure^ as he had been in uttering 
his condemnation. No man could well have a higher^ or 
purer^ or nobler charity than Father Havens^ although 
he did not always possess the most polished way of 
showing it. His style was never that of the flatterer, 
and there was nothing he viewed with greater personal 
disgust than the popularity-seeking-theory of oily 
tongues, or the empty compliments of crhiging syco- 
phants. 

His plainness of manners and bluntness of speech 
were often against him, and not unfrequently made 
him enemies where he should have had friends. His 
honest practice of calling things by their right names 
differed widely from the wisdom of the world, and it 
was because of this that some people considered that 
he was at times uncouth, if not even rough and 
uncharitable. These manifestations of an apparent 
censoriousness, with him were never the dictations of 
a domineering spirit, or of any haughty disposition to 
give insult or injury. They were the natural outgrowth 
of his bold and independent mind, which was ever 
ready to rebuke sin of any sort, and among any class 
of people. Always resolved on right himself, his aim 
and purpose was to enforce it on others in every honor- 
able way in his power. In doing this^ he sometimes 



29 



showed an aggressiveness of spirit^ which would startle 
the timid and lead them to infer that he wished to carry 
his points, if it was even at the expense of peace and 
love^ and with physical power.. It was thi- heroic 
energy of his Christian character which doubtless gave 
him the greatest success in his ministry; and it was to 
this trait, mainly, we may attribute his decided and 
prominent recognition among the people. 

Wherever he went, and wherever he labored, he 
always dared to do right himself, and his purpose vfas 
to have all others follow his example. AYith him, 
the arm of the right was above all sh<:.w and all pre- 
tense: and therefore he was never ready to compromise 
it with either friend or foe^ 

In any of the tricks that are vain, 
Or the ways that are dark.'' 

The proud manliness of his nature scorned the little- 
ness of all scheming and soulless policies, and wherever 
he detected such a spirit he detested it with his strongest 
impulses; and none the less when he saw it in the 
ministry than elsewhere. 

The brave heart and the true man he always loved, 
no matter where he might find him; and through all 
his Christian life he was never known to slight the 
the Aveakness of unsophisticated honesty, or to turn 
away from the timely succor of any man of true or 
honorable purposes. AYhat he was before God he 
aimed to appear before men ; and it was this ne\'er 
failing integrity which gained for him so distinctively 
the high regards of the best and leading men of the 
State. 



30 



CHAPTER III. 

DOMESTIC HABITS. 

The question was once asked Rev. Allen Wiley : 
Do you know Mr. Thompson icell, Brother Wiley?'^ 
I do not. I never lived with him — was the 
response of the old itinerant. 

How true it is^ that the home circle alone^ reveals 
our true characters. What we really are^ is known 
only there. What we merely pretend to be^ is what 
the outside world usually knows of us anywhere else. 

The fact is patent that the true character of a man is 
not always known by his public life. Jso^ not even 
when he is a minister of the Gospel — for he^ who is 
usually bland and polite in society^ may often^ in his 
own home^ be selfish and morose, and display anything 
else than the Christian graces. Domestic integrity is 
not always evinced in the home circle in the blandish- 
ments of social cheer, or even by the reciprocal ten- 
derness of becoming; reco2:nitions. The sternness of 
stolid abstraction often assumes the place of affectionate 
geniality^ and the home hearth is made desolate on the 
most suicidal principles. Home tells the true story^ 
for it is there that real character is tested ; there only 
the inner man speaks out^ and the true animus of the 
soul is read without any glossary. 

With his wife and children, he becomes familiar^ and 
they know him in his weakness as well as in his divinity. 

At home the curtain is lifted and the man is on the 



31 



stage in his true character^ in all his measured pro- 
portions. 

As was once remarked^ by a lady of her husband : 
you can never see him except in his slippers — he is 
then himself.^^ 

Most people put on a face to receive their friends^ 
and a very different one to accommodate themselves to 
their enemies. Hence^ we must know what a man is 
at home with his wife and children, in order that we 
may understand what we may think of him when he 
is abroad. Mothers^ wives, and children^ are all made 
to stand on their home virtues^ and it is only justice 
that the same law should be applied to men. Indeed^ 
it is quite likely^ that many men^ who have had most 
respectable public records^ would have lost much of 
their personal prestige had their domestic idiosyncrasies 
been fully revealed. In such inspections we know it 
depends much upon the kind of wife a man has whether 
he will display many home virtues or not^ for her 
power^ as all know^ is frequently the arbiter of his 
character as well as of his destiny. Yet it is often the 
case^ even when the wife is all she should be, that the 
husband is cold in his affections, and consequently care- 
less in his family associations. Therefore, we aver that 
the mere pulpit performances of a minister should not 
be the chief exponents of his real character, for he may 
have splendid talents to preach but not the virtues to 
practice. The theory of goodness may be well on his 
tongue while his nature may be as rugged as the cliffs. 

Such suggestions as these have come legitimately 
before us, in the effort of our pen in the delineation of 



32 



Mr. Havens^ domestic character. If we did not inves- 
tigate his spirit and history in this connection, we 
would not^ and could not know him in the inner great- 
ness of his spirit^ or be able to fully appreciate the 
simple tenacity of his Christian virtues. Then^ in 
addressing ourselves to this somewhat delicate task^ we 
but render justice to the unpretending and good woman 
wdio was the partner of his life, who had undoubtedly 
much to do in the distinguished usefulness of his itiner- 
ant history, as well as in the well regulated government 
he had over his own disposition, which was naturally 
impetuous and fiery. 

The eulogy once pronounced upon a good and great 
man, on the occasion of his funeral services, was, in an 
eminently honest sense, applicable to Mr. Havens : 

He was a good man, ever kind to his neighbors, 
and loved his wife and children as he did himself.^^ 

The fortunes of his itinerant life led him to seek a 
home in our State, and directly after coming to Indiana, 
in 1824, he entered a quarter section of land about 
three miles west of Rushville, Here he and his boys 
put up a small cabin, into which he moved his family, 
where he determined, as far as possible, to make them 
independent of all church stipends, and where he could 
raise them to habits of industry and economy, and at 
the same time give his own services to the itinerant 
work of the ministry. This humble cabin home was 
surrounded by an almost unbroken wilderness; but 
humble and obscure as it was, he felt that it was his 
own — that there his family would be happy, because 



33 



they would neither be dependent^ nor suffer for the 
want of bread or meat. 

His circuits of course were large^ and his frequent 
and long absence from home threw much of the man- 
agement of the clearing up and labor of the farm upon 
his wife^ who^ with the aid of her sons^ ultimately 
brought the place into such a state of improvement and 
production as to give them as comfortable a home as 
the country afforded. 

That little farm enabled him to give his life to the 
labors of the itinerant ministry^ and that wife^ the 
mother of his fifteen children^ through all those years, 
taught him by the simplicity of her spirit^ and by her 
uncomplaining sacrifices, to love and reverence her 
with an affection which grew stronger with his years 
and held him with more than silken cords even down 
to the very Jordan of death. 

Men ordinarily love their homes as they love their 
wives, and though the professional calling of Mr. 
Havens demanded his frequent absence from home his 
presence there was never prevented save by his itiner- 
ant obligations. What the church required at his hands 
he always attempted to accomplish, and therefore he 
yielded the sceptre of domestic government to his wife 
and children to a much greater extent than is common 
among fathers. To their economy and plans he gen- 
erally yielded with grace, because he felt and acknow- 
ledged that his calling was that of the ministry, and to 
its special duties he directed so much of his attention, 
that often his return to his home was received more like 
the visits of a stranger than that of the proprietor. 
4 



34 



The religious deportment of the household however, 
was always readily yielded into his hands, on his return 
from his circuits or districts, and the family bible and 
well worn Methodist hymn book were laid before him 
night and morning, for each member of the household 
felt that he was the High Priest of the family, and 
both wife and children listened to his song and prayer 
with devout solemnity as to one whom they knew to 
be sincere, and for whose character and pretensions 
they ever exercised the highest reverence. He often 
sang from memory a few verses of hymns familiar to 
the family, for he never was tedious, and the quivering 
tremor of his voice, both in song and prayer, carried 
with it, even in his private devotions, the strong con- 
victive power of an earnest sincerity. 

Mr. Havens^ personal dignity and unostentatious 
spirit, made him both at home and abroad, the humble 
gentleman and the decided Christian, whom to know 
was to respect and hence the voluntary reverence which 
was always extended to him by his children, his neigh- 
bors and even by strangers. 

They had intuitive confidence in his sincerity, and 
were well satisfied with his Christian honesty, for they 
always found him favoring the right and opposing the 
wrong, on all subjects, without regard to either fear or 
favor. 

It mattered not with him where he was, in whose 
house or home he happened to be, he seemed never to 
forget either his position or character as a minister. 
What he professed to be he was always ready to make 
manifest, and therefore even among strangers, he fre- 



35 



quently spoke out bravely in defense of the principles 
and claims of Christianity, where others, even of his 
ministerial brethren, would not even make themselves 
known. It was never Mr. Havens^ conviction that he 
was under obligations to compromise wdth wrong in 
any society. He believed that God was everywhere 
and that there was principle in everything, and while 
he was not unmindful of the rules of a respectful eti- 
quette, he but seldom yielded to a passive silence in 
any company where he saw there was a want of respect 
for honest principles. 

In the earlier days of his ministry it was quite com- 
mon for some Methodist Preachers to be extra careful 
of what they ate or drank. Of course in some families 
such particular guardianship of the appetite was pru- 
dent, to say the least of it, for otherwise they might 
have masticated more than their usual peck of 
earthly matter. But this fastidious squeamishness was 
rather ignored by Mr. Havens, because he thought it 
savored too mijch of Priestly pedantry, which, in his 
view, reflected but poorly on the self-sacrificing char- 
acter of the ministry, and therefore he usually ate 
without questions anything that was set before him. 
He drank coffee, tea, milk or water, just as it was pro- 
vided for him, at any meal, and at all places. He 
endeavored to be pleased wherever hospitality was 
offered him, and he aimed to give as little trouble to 
families as possible. 

On one occasion he was invited to dine at the house 
of one of his friends where the lady was very profuse 
as well as premature in her unnecessary apologies. 



36 



She was very sorry she did not have more notice of 
his comings for then^ she would have had him a good 
dinner. To-day/* she added^ " we really have nothing 
fit to eat/^ 

The table was before him and Mr. Havens saw there 
was an abundance^ and what was good enough for any- 
one^ and he drew back from his chair as if he would 
retire, saying, " Well, sister, if you really have noth- 
ing fit to eat on the table, I will go somewhere else for 
my dinner, for 1 am really very hungry. 

The good lady could but blush, for she felt the eccen- 
tric rebuke of the good old minister ; and yet she could 
but smile a tacit consent to his admonition when he 
added : But 1 believe, sister, I will try and make out 
with your poor dinner to-day by making my dessert on 
the faith of the one you will get me when you know I 
am coming next time.'^ Mr. Havens ate many a good 
meal in that house afterward, but the sister never again 
troubled him with apologies. 

He once said to another lady : Don't, sister, make 
any apologies ; I never like them. They are neither 
fish nor flesh, and they always embarrass me.'' To him 
they were like empty compliments — something he did 
not like to deal in. He preferred the plain manners 
and frank expressions of the olden days. He thought, 
and perhaps correctly, too, that the habit of making 
apologies frequently lead to falsehoods, and he often 
used to say that he but seldom ever heard a preacher 
make an apology and afterward preach a successful 
sermon. Mr. Havens loved the old domestic habitudes, 
the primitive manners which accorded with the customs 



37 



of his earlier years^ because he believed they were less 
tinctured with pride and duplicity^ and had in them 
much more of the genuine spirit of a heart-warm hos- 
pitality. As might have been expected of one reared 
amid the elementary developments of our western civil- 
ization^ Mr. Havens never cared much for conventional 
rules or metropolitan manners. Having himself in 
early life enjoyed none of their advantages^ it was not 
to be expected that he would readily swerve from the 
habits and customs in which he had been so long 
educated. He loved to stop and make his home^ in 
his itinerant travels^ with those families whose manners 
were plain^ and whose hospitalities Avere never measured 
or given for display. It was on this consideration that 
he never had many stopping places on his circuits and 
districts. AVhen he found a good home^ however humble 
it might be^ he would always drive right to it as if it 
were his own clomicil. For forty years he had been in 
the habit of stopping in the town of Brookville^ in 
Franklin county^ with Mr. Samuel Goodwin^ the father 
of Rev. T. A. Goodwin^ who was a tanner by trade, 
and whose residence was by ^^the seaside of the 
^Yhite Water^ where he always felt that he was a wel- 
come guest. Though he spent hundreds of nights in 
that place, and visited many of the families of the 
town, he always had his lodging room at the home of 
Mr, Goodwin. He had his bed there, and he would 
never sleep, when in Brookville, in any other. 

Such, indeed, was his unassuming domestic disposition 
that he was never easy if he saw that the hospitality 
extended to him was either studied or troublesome. 



38 



He but seldom asked for any sort of extra attention^ 
and when an effort was made to force it upon him he 
felt that ^Hhe cost would not quit the expenses/' and 
he did not often yield to a second invitation to any 
such namby pamby hospitality. 

He had learned to eat whatsoever was set before him^ 
asking no questions, and wherever he stopped he never 
seemed concerned about what they would give him to 
eat or drink, and it was but very seldom that he ever 
passed a criticism on the culinary character of the table. 

In these peculiar habitudes Mr. Havens evinced his 
unselfishness, and set an example to the younger min- 
isters, which, to say the least of it, \vas creditable to the 
man. He did not think that his being a minister gave 
him any preferred rights at another man's table, and 
when he accepted of their proffered hospitality he did 
so with his own personal understanding that he had no 
right to bring in any ^^extra bill of expense.'' The plain 
and simple kindness of his friends was always remem- 
bered by him with a gratitude w^hich was as ardent as 
it was both true and constant. 



39 



CHAPTER lY. 

PERSONAL ECOXOMY. 

ExTRAYAGA^sCE in personal expenditures is often an 
indication of selfishness^ as it also is of a general moral 
recklessness ; for what men spend, regardless of a pru- 
dent and sound economy, is always means wasted ; no 
matter whether the gratification is limited to ones own 
self, or is lavished upon others. This order of moral 
philosophy, though it may not be readily acknowl- 
edged by the thoughtless and worldly, undoubtedly 
involves the welfare of nearly all classes. Some learn 
it well in early life, from the teachings of their parental 
examples, while others receive its instructions from the 
fortunes of necessity only. 

The limited stipends of the Methodist itinerancy, 
particularly in the earlier days, taught its pioneers the 
most rigid economy ; hence, it was not strange to find 
such a man as lsh\ Havens, fully systematized in the 
most limited expenditures. 

The fixed salary of the Discipline of the Church, 
was then only one hundred dollars for the preacher, 
and the same for his wdfe ; and sixteen dollars for each 
child under seven, and twenty-four dollars for each 
child over seven and under fourteen, which age ended 
the frugal chapter in these appropriations, and which 
were certainly both full and ample, as, in the course 
of human events,^^ even these meager assessments were 
but seldom realized on any of the circuits. How those 



40 



early pioneers managed to live and keep a horse besides, 
has been a puzzle to many, much more difBcult of solu- 
tion than many mathematical problems. True^ their 
incomes were small and their liabilities numerous; but, 
as Bishop Janes once asked, Who ever knew a Meth- 
odist preacher's family to starve to death The good 
Bishop's experience was doubtless on the other side ; 
but if he had lived in Indiana, and had had the honor 
of traveling some of the circuits to which he has 
appointed preachers, even in his day, he would have, 
perhaps, learned a lesson, such as his Episcopal phi- 
losophy has never taught him. But the fields had to 
be supplied, and some one must go to the new and 
poor circuits, as well as to the old and richer ones, and 
where they were all poor, as was the case in the earlier 
days of Indiana Methodism, the lot of even the most 
fortunate was a hard one, and was only endured by the 
heroic, in the humble spirit of zeal and self-sacrifice. 

The old records of Quarterly Conferences tell many 
quaint stories of quarterage,^' which, in these days, 
would place the blush of shame on the cheek of even 
the most penurious. We have read them where the 
Presiding Elder was paid fifty cents for his quarter's 
services, while even the " circuit rider," himself, 
counted his pro rata share in a sum less than five 
dollars. How men could keep soul and body together 
while playing such a conspicuous part on such a small 
financial basis, as we have already intimated, to many, 
in these days, would, doubtless, be ^^the mystery of 
mysteries." 

The nearest explanation which we may give of the 



41 



matter is^ to say that the people of those days vreve 
not half so selfish^ and money-loving, and preacher- 
charging^ as we find them even at the present time. 
Money^ in the West^ in the early settlement of the 
country^ was scarce^ because there were no markets^ 
and what the farmers raised brouHit but little. Wheat 
sold then for thirty-seven and one-half cents; corn, for 
ten cents ; butter, for six and one-quarter cents, and 
flour as low" as one dollar and fifty cents per hundred 
pounds. AVood, nine feet in length, brought thirty- 
seven and one-half cents a load, which is well-remem- 
bered by Mr. AVilliam McEwen, of Columbus, who 
hauled many a load to the preachers in that vicinity^ 
at that price. 

It is said of John Strange, whose memory is immor- 
tal in the history of Indiana Methodism, that on one 
occasion, when he was traveling the Charlestown Cir- 
cuit, Mrs. Strange informed him, one morning, just as 
he had mounted his horse to go to an appointment, 
that she had not a handful of flour in the house. 

^^Is that so, my dear?^^ asked the good man. ^^It 
is;^^ Mrs. Strange responded. Well, now,^^ said the 
eccentric and eloquent preacher, ^^1^11 tell the Lord all 
about that, and we'll see whether He will allow the 
people to treat us in this way.'^ When off he rode 
toward his appointment seemingly as unconcerned as if 
he owned a dozen flouring mills. Meeting Hezekiah 
Robertson in the out edge of town, he addressed him 
as follows : Brother Robertson, my wife told me this 
morning, just as I was leaving' home, that she was out 
of flour. I have to preach twice to-day ; and you know 



42 



you can't preach at all, but you can take lier a bag of \ 
flour. Now, you and the Lord for it, Brother Robert- 
son/' Then bidding him good morning, Strange rode 
on his way to preach to the people, as confident that , 
Mrs. Strange would not be without flour for dinner as , 
' he was that he would not be without grace in preaching " 
his sermons — for the day. > 

To take money from a circuit rider'' for almost (j 
anything, was thought by many of the people in those | 
good old times to be very nearly akin to sacrilege, f 
Indeed, but few did it among white men ; and with black \ 
men with straight hair, who did charge them, they soon j 
learned to have but few dealings. Of course, the fam- 
ilies of the preachers were often sick, and required the 
services of a physician. To the honor of the medical 
fraternity, it may be truthfully said that but few of them 
ever thought of presenting a bill against a Methodis^ 
'^circuit rider." Medical services were a free will 
offering, almost uniformly. We only remember of two i 
exceptions. One where the doctor belonged to the ; 
Friends, and had to charge to keep the rules of his j 
church; and the other made out a bill against the ^ 
preacher, because he heard that he would not take his i 
medicine through fear that it would kill him. 

The high honor and professional pride of the medical 
fraternity would not allow them to take a fee from these 
poor self-sacrificing itinerants, whose incomes were so : 
small, at best, that liberal minded men could only \ 
wonder how they managed to live or keep out of debt. \ 

The disposition of Mr. Havens had been through \ 
life so trained that he cared but little for money for his ! 



43 



own use, and such was his high strung spirit of personal 
independence that he would much rather stand up before 
the people with an untranimeled freedom without a cent 
i in his pockety than to have their gifts and feel that his 
freedom of speech or reproof was thereby restrained. 
His greatest pride was that of personal independence, 
and poor and dependant as he sometimes evidently was^ 
he was the last man to either make his wants known or 
to ask to have them relieved. 

He learned early in life to have but few wants, which 
gave him the habits of economy, which continued with 
him through all his after years. AVhen he received his 
quarterage/^ as the quarterly income of the circuit 
riders was called, he carried it home as if it was not 
his own. It was but seldom that he ever spent a dollar 
of it for himself, though frequently his garments were 
seedy and his boots were badly needing recuperation. 
In any new departure in this line he had to have the 
counsel of ^^Mother,^^ as he called his wife; and often, 
even when she had counseled him to purchase a new 
garment, he postponed it with characteristic careless- 
ness, until his careful and tender hearted companion 
urged him to the duty by her expostulations. 

Display in dress was always an evidence, in his esti- 
mation, of both pride and weakness ; and he but seldom 
formed a very high estimate of any one, male or female, 
whom he saw " arrayed in purple and fine linen. 
His conceptions of extravagance and pride were of 
course gleaned from the economical habits of earlier 
years ; and if they were sometimes thrown out in pri- 
vate reproofs in rather a severe style, it was because he 



44 



believed^ as did most of the early Methodist preachers, 
that conformity to the world in dress and extravagance 
was a palpable as well as a sinful indulgence. 

The regime of his economical instructions was of. 
course rigid^ and at that time constituted a prominent 
principle even in the discipline of his church. There- 
fore he felt obligated^ both by example and precept^ to 
vindicate his ideas of non-conformity with the world, 
and to lead the people under his charge to plainness 
and simplicity as consistent Christians. 

The wants of families in the early settlement of the 
"West were supplied chiefly from their own resources, 
and, consequently, they were as simple as they were often 
economical and meager. Extravagance was taught, 
with emphasis, to be a sin ; and on this account, the 
children of that day grew up with very strict ideas of 
economy. Of course, the old styles prevailed, and new 
departures from them were naturally viewed with jeal- 
ousy and suspicion. In all these regards, Mr. Havens 
had been raised after the strictest sect of economists, 
and, therefore, he had learned to supply his own personal 
wants with very small considerations. Always plain 
in dress and moderate in all his wishes, the limitation 
of his means was never a drawback to his enjoyments, 
or any hindrance to his efficiency or active usefulness. 

We have heard a story of one of the straits to 
which Mr. Havens was once driven, which, if true — 
and we rather guess it was — must have made him feel 
that quarterage was getting scarce and was bringing 
him to his nakedness. 

Tradition, at least, tells the story on him that his 



45 



wardrobe^ which he always as a general thing carried 
- in his saddle-bags^ got so far reduced that he had but 
^'one shirt, and that^ of course^ was on his back. While 
it was there he felt no Avays embarrassed^ and could 
meet his appointments with a regularity and noncha- 
' lance which would have done honor to the highness of 
^ an archbishop. But when the time came for a change 
I he found the predicament an awkward one^ from which^ 
however, he was happily relieved by going to bed and 
' taking a nap while his better half washed and ironed 
the aforesaid linen, which, on awakening, he found at 
his bedside as white and clean as if it had been especi- 
ally prepared for his approaching quarterly meeting. 

The personal expenses of Mr. Havens were of course 
chiefly directed by himself, and the small amounts he 
deducted out of his always limited income, gave a true 
index to the liberality of his character, and showed 
what was real in his history — that he did not live for 
himself. Nature had made him a nobleman in his dig- 
nity and mien, and the graces of the Christian life had 
taught him the liberal self-sacrifices of his profession. 
What he did for others was, in his esteem, only the 
obligations of the higher law, and intent on these simple 
I purposes, he seemed to think that worldly speculations 
I were no part of his life services. He felt that he 
was a Methodist itinerant preacher, and that whatever 
honors or emoluments that of&cial relation would 
give him constituted his legitimate and chief boon, 
and outside of this his tliouo;hts seemed never to run 
in any other channel only as they were called out by 
his obligations as a citizen and neighbor. 



46 



Even in his habits and personal indulgences he was 
always gentlemanly^ and particularly careful of the 
rights and privileges of others; and in the daily use of 
his pipe^ though it seemed often to be essential 
to his proper equilibrium, he would never light it in 
a strange house without asking permission. 

In 1852, Mr. Havens was a delegate to the General 
Conference of his church, which met in Boston, and as 
is the custom on such occasions, he was appointed to 
board with one of the families of the city. He was 
introduced to the gentleman and his wife and to the 
sons and daughters, and after early tea he was shown 
to his room on the second floor, the husband and wife 
both assisting him with his baggage. 

^' Well, now,^^ said Mr. Havens, " I see that this room 
will just suit me. You know we, Western Methodist 
preachers, sometimes smoke, and I will ask the privi- 
lege of sitting out on that portico when I smoke.^^ 

No, Mr. Havens,^^ responded the kind-hearted Yan- 
kee merchant, we will not allow any such thing about 
our house. If you want to smoke, sit right down in 
this large rocking chair, and light your pipe, and smoke 
as much as you please. We did not invite your Gene- 
ral Conference to Boston to take away from you any of 
your rights or privileges. We just want you to pitch 
in and enjoy yourself just as you do at your own home 
out in Indiana. 

Thank you, thank you, sir/^ said Mr. Havens ; I 
perceive you are a gentleman of good sense, as well as 
of politeness; and I shall take it for grante*d that I 
am at home while I am under your roof.^^ 



47 

■ Some exceedingly nice people^ who are as intolerant 
11' and exclusive as they are radical and temperate^ would 

no doubt have played a different part with the old 
ij western pioneer, by saying we would prefer to have no 
' smokers as our guests. We have generally found all 

such superficial reformers as proscriptive as they were 

exacting. 

Ill . It was certainly one of Mr. Haven's highest virtues 
that he asked but few indulgences for himself. The 
strictness of his personal economy gave him a marked 
advantage in the restriction of his expenditures, and 
made him less selfish and less covetous both as a man 
and a minister. Indeed, it is probable that if his 
annual expenditures for himself had been strictly kept^ 
it" would be seen that he did not lay out fifty dollars a 
year for all his purposes. 

The personal sacrifices of such a minister may well 
be recorded, for they remain, and should, among his 
loudest and strongest sermons. Posterity can not but 
be benefitted by their recital, as his own high integrity 
is more richly indorsed by their remembrance. He 
made no extortionate demands upon his congregations 
to enrich his coffers, or to justify his personal extrava- 
gance, nor did he ever harp upon the starving order of 
his pay in the itinerancy, as some have done ; for he 
appeared, from the beginning, to comprehend the situ- 
ation, and therefore he placed his family on the land 
which he had entered in the woods, where, under the 
guidance and counsel of their excellent mother, they 
dug their living from the soil, while the father gave 
himself to the arduous labors of an itinerant minister. 



48 



Surely such a man is a hero^ even in the moral world, 
as he tempers his ambition to the restraints of virtue, 
in order that he may build up the fortunes of others at 
the sacrifice of his own. 



49 



CHAPTER V. 

CHABACTER OF HIS FEIENDSHIPS. 

I The measure of men^s greatness is often made known 
j in the character of their fraternal spirit. What they 
f profess may give us their relative positions in society^ 
and what they do may indicate their energy and ambi- 
tion ; but w^e have to look to the fraternal spirit of men 
to know their real animus, as well as their geniality and 
true character. In the investigation of this point we 
may learn more of the inside nature of men and of 
their real stamina than we can at a hundred public 
receptions. In business life many are social, but often 
only to their customers. They take no interest in men 
only as they have a personal interest in them. Indeed, 
they seem so absorbed in their own self-interests that 
they know nothing and no one outside of these selfish 
purlieus. They can smile upon a man of dollars if 
I he is replenishing himself at their own crib ; but if he 
is feeding at any other, to them he becomes both " a 
heathen and a publican. 

Even in the ministry the same spirit is often mani- 
fested. Men who profess- to be disciples of the Master, 
and whom we would suppose, from their high standing 
in the Church, were possessed with the same broad 
humanities, are exceedingly complacent when in the 
presence of patron saints — but when they have no ax 
to grind they appear to be wrapt only in their own 
selfish mantles. Evidently born to take care of them- 
5 



50 



selves, they make their calling and election sure'^ 
with a wonderful assiduity. 

The fact may be contrary to the general conviction, 
but it is painfully true that the weaker imbecilities 
of our nature often crop out even in the history of the 
professedly pious gospel minister. It does not follow 
at all that because he is in holy orders he is therefore 
a saint, any more than it does that he is a gentleman or 
a scholar. The one we know is an attainment of grace, 
while the other is the result only of long and faithful 
study. But neither the one nor the other is ever forced 
upon a man just because he wears the sacred ermine. 

Human nature is ever jealous of her rights, and her 
well known weaknesses cling to some with a remark- 
able tenacity all through their lives, notwithstanding 
they are sometimes found even in the front ranks of 
the holy ministry. The friendship of Judas Iscariot 
reflected but poorly upon human nature, while even 
that- of Peter was. of a very doubtful stability. If on 
such high roles of apostolic fame men were found whose 
fraternal integrity bore such poor evidences of any true 
and real friendships, it ought not to be thought sacri- 
ligious if we say in this chapter that the friendships of 
ministers of the gospel are^ in many instances, to say 
the best of them, but little above par. 

It is said that men of the same profession are fre- 
quently jealous of one another, and we presume there is 
a world of truth in the declaration, often when it is 
applied to the Christian ministry. This liability doubt- 
less lies with a strong weight even on the Methodist 
ministry; indeed, much stronger now than it did in 



51 



former days^ for in an Annual Conference of Methodist 
itinerants where men necessarily must stand in each 
other's wav, even for years^ the temptation with many 
is almost irresistible to be somewhat jealous of the men 
who supplant them. True^ the common ills and mis- 
fortunes of the grand system generally make warm 
friendships, and often life time brotherhoods^ but as it 
is in other departments of life^ so is it in this; there 
are often too many exceptions to the general rule where 
men who are deficient in education^ as they also are in 
the larger ideas and the more liberal sentiments^ hope 
to maintain their ascendency or their temporary posi- 
tions of fortune^ by throwing check lines over the equal 
or^ perhaps^ even over the superior abilities of their 
brethren. Things of this kind^ no doubt^ happen^ as 
perhaps they always will^ in all conventional assemblies 
of even gospel ministers. The admission may be con- 
sidered a sad one for the honor of the ministry; and 
some may even deem its statement in this connection 
inappropriate, if not imprudent. But we aim to be 
frank in writing of one who was always known to be 
frank himself; and as we have nothing personal to 
accomplish in doing so^ but aim only to give to our 
readers^ as nearly as we can^ our life sketches of Father 
Havens in the characteristic language of the man as he 
would say himself, if still living, without regard to 
fear or favor.'' AVe aim to speak plainly, and to ^^set 
down naught in malice." 

As we have attempted to demonstrate in another 
chapter, but few men in this day have read character 
with any greater or more definite readiness than Father 



52 



Havens^ and on this account he was sometimes shy of 
some men whenever they came about him with their 
pretended friendships; for even^ while he would admit 
their sincerity^ he had but very limited confidence in 
their fraternal integrity. He had lived long enough 
to know that the friend of to-day might and often was 
the enemy of to-morrow, and therefore, toward many, 
he maintained a respectful reserve, which, however, 
was always accompanied, on his part, with an honest 
frankness, which was ever as fearless as it was sincere. 
Even among his brethren in the ministry, he some- 
times created enemies, because he did not feel it to be his 
duty to play the patron or hypocrite, or to carry a Janused 
countenance. It was not, indeed, his weakness to 
implicitly place too high an estimate on human nature 
anywhere, for he well knew that it was all made of the 
same frail material, and he well understood that, now 
and then, in spite of all reforms, it would indicate such 
an admixture, as was even worse than ^^dust^^ itself. 

Coming up, as he did, from the lowest rung of 
defective education, and having his entire growth in 
knowledge and experience, in connection with the 
ministry, his chances of the practical test, gave him, 
perhaps, as clear perceptions of friendships^ numerous 
faces and changeful characters as perhaps fell to the lot 
of any minister of his age. 

But always tenacious of the right, and jealous of the 
consistency and purity of the Church, he stood fear- 
lessly in the breach whenever the one was in jeopardy, 
or the other was trampled upon, no matter who was 
the transgressor. In these vindications, he spared 



53 



i neither friend nor foe; yea, he spared not even himself^, 
j for he feared not to assume even the responsibilities of 
prosecutor^ and thereby he sometimes brought upon 
' himself the excited and keen displeasure of those who 
j otherwise would have been his friends. But^ then^ 
I while he asked no man^s friendship at the expense of 
I • principle^ he never turned his back upon a friend for 
the sake of personal policy. 

What he did for a brother in his character as a Chris- 
tian^ or as a presiding elder, in his official capacity, he 
did because he believed it was right ; and if a favor was 
I conferred he never named it to the recipient, unless it 
was done as a mere matter of history^ for he scorned 
to buy up friendships with the patronage of his official 
power, or to join in with rings to retain his ascend- 
ancy. His warmest manifestations of friendship were 
always toward the ^^outs'^ rather than the ^^ins,^^ and 
such was his spirit of untrammeled independence that 
he never played the sycophant before his Conference, 
to win its applause, or to gain its popular favor. What 
he was in person and fact, he was always willing to be 
measured for. Indeed, he never turned weather-cock 
to catch any popular breeze. 

That such a minister should have foes as well as 
friends might well have been expected; but that he 
had the capacity to vindicate his positions, as well as 
his fair fame, none ever doubted who knew him. Like 
the hero on the field of battle, he showed himself pos- 
sessed of sufficient energy for the strife, and the bold 
friendships of his heart always gave him hosts to stand 
by his side. These and similar affinities made him a 



54 



leader among the armies of Israel^ and held him up 
through a long and distinguished ministry. 

In the later years of his life Father Havens did not 
trust himself out very far in the line of friendships^ 
for as the fire of his years died away^ and the sun of 
his public labors began to set^ he felt that his friends 
grew few^ and that the boundaries of his fraternal con- 
fidence became more and still more limited. The facts, 
however^ were not always as he felt them ; for many 
thousands still reverenced him^ and the memory of the 
good old man was as fresh and green in their hearts as 
when his trumpet tones rang out with his mightiest 
personal power. 

The fact will readily be conceded that no Methodist 
preacher who ever labored in Indiana had more true 
and admiring friends, among the general public^ than 
Father Havens. Men of all faiths^ and creeds, and 
churches respected him^ while those most distinguished, 
and who ranked among the first minds of the State, 
held for him the very highest regards. Such men as 
Hon. James Raridan, Hon. Oliver H. Smith, Hon. 
Samuel Parker, Hon. Caleb B. Smith, and Hon. P. A. 
Hackleman^ and all such celebrities over the State, 
looked upon the old heroic preacher as being one of 
God^s special and most Avorthy messengers. They 
respected him for his talents, and reverenced him for 
his high moral integrity, and for his sacrificing and 
heroic efforts to build up and protect the citadel of the 
public morals. They had heard him often at his quar- 
terly and camp meetings in the days of his strength, 
when thousands gathered to hear him, and when he 



55 



J 



stood up before the vast multitudes^ with that dignified 
and commanding presence and eloquence^ which^ under 
the divine blessing, brought many hundreds to acknowl- 
edge the truths of religion, and led them to give their 
I hearts to God. 

I When Father Havens was in the zenith of his min- 
! isterial strength and efficiency, he found a young and 
1 gifted Minister in his District by the name of Lucien 
W. Berry, to whom he became warmly attached. He 
saw that he had great powers of mind, and at times 
exhibited a pulpit ability almost equal to the eloquent 
friend of his early ministry. Rev. Henry B. Bascom. 
|i He kept him in his District on several diflPerent Cir- 
1 cuits, and in a few years had him stationed in the 
I Capital of the State, which was then the most impor- 
tant charge in the Conference — where Mr. Berry 
remained tw^o years, when he succeeded Father Havens 
on the District as Presiding Elder. In this relation 
to the Church, Mr. Berry served several years on 
different dictricts, w'hen he was elected President of 
the Indiana Asbury University. The friendship of 
Father Havens, doubtless, had much to do in the 
' rapid elevation of this able and eloquent Divine, to so 
important a position, and undoubtedly, gave him some- 
thing of the prestige which he carried wdth him to his 
high and distinguished responsibility. No man was 
more grateful than Dr. Berry. He felt that he owed 
much to the kind considerations of Father Havens, 
and down to the latest period of his life, he entertained 
for his venerable patron, the tenderest emotions of 
, gratitude and reverence; and had he outlived him 



56 



would have been with pride and gladness his willing 
and able biographer. 

Some brethren^ no doubt^ have thought that in these 
freaks of friendly partiality, Father Havens showed a 
weakness ; but we opine^ if some of them had made 
the elfort and played the part of patron Saints to 
somebody^ they would have placed jewels in the crowns 
of their own distinctions which they have utterly 
failed to accomplish. Some Ministers^ who are good 
and honorable men at that— have somehow never had 
any patronage to bestow upon any but themselves. 
They see young men of promise around them^ but 
they keep their distance^ lest by the light of their 
countenances the student might eclipse the master. 
We can not but honor the memory of Father Havens^ 
because he was a stranger to jealousy^ as he also was 
to selfishness. His fears of being eclipsed by a rising 
rival never drove even a beggar from his door. He 
had known what it was to be a stranger himself, and 
had frequently felt the darkness of his own surround- 
ings, when there was scarcely a star light upon his path, 
and yet he often gave to the young candidate for future 
honors in the Church that grip of friendship which 
would help him up and on^ unless he subsequently 
forfeited it by his own willful delinquency. 

His fondness for debate^ and the keenness of his 
sarcasm^ sometimes led the venerable minister to the 
utterance of language much more biting and severe 
than he even thought it was at the time; but when the 
coolness of reflection^ and the sober second thought/^ 
convicted him of his wrong, but few men were more 



57 



ready and prompt to ask pardon than Father Havens. 
He did not claim infallibility, and he was always con- 
fident of his own weaknesses. Xo matter whom he had 
offended, if he thought he was wrong, he considered it 
no dishonor for hirn to beg their forgiveness with the 
utmost respect and sincerity. 

In his own neighborhood, in Rushville and vicinity, 
where his family so long resided, he T\'as well known, 
and always respected by every class of society. He 
mingled with them, Y>'hen he VA'as at home, as if he was 
the moral guardian of the entire community. With 
even the wickedest men of the place he would fre- 
quently hold street conversations, and many of his 
most effective sermons were preached in this way to 
men who but seldom ever darkened a church door. 
They knew he was honest, and they believed him sin- 
cere, and hence they listened to him with respectful 
deference; and the probabilities are that many of these 
men remembered these street exhortations better and 
longer than any plain moral lessons they heard from 
any other source. 

In the later years of his life. Father Havens adopted 
into the family of his friendships a young minister of a 
somewhat eccentric eloquence, by the name of John W. 
T. McMullen. He had known him from his childhood, 
and when he found him in the ranks of the itinerancy, 
stirring up the churches and moving among the uncon- 
verted, with all the wild eloquence of a son of thun- 
der,^' he seemed himself to be strongly captivated with 
the trumpet music of his preaching, and he at once 
adopted him as one of his favorite sons in the minis- 
6 



58 



try. The relationship was one of mutual acceptance^ 
and for aught we know of mutual enjoyment and 
profit. 'No such union of hearts was known in the 
Conference. They were always together when it was 
possible, and though one was old and the other young, 
their ties of brotherhood were like those of David and 
Jonathan. The honest simplicity and lofty eloquence 
of young McMullen appeared to have a charm for the 
old hero, and held him like the enchanted wand of 
some spirit power. 

This ardent and last friendly attachment of Father 
Havens continued until his death, and then, as had 
been agreed upon, Mr. McMullen preached the funeral 
oration of his venerable and departed friend, in the 
court-house yard of Rushville, in the presence of some 
two or three thousand people. It was our privilege to 
hear this oration. It had evidently been most elabor- 
ately prepared, and nearly three hours were consumed 
in its delivery. The effort was, indeed, a grand one. 
It was both beautiful and eloquent, and abounded in 
the rich figures and tropes for which the eloquent min- 
ister is so distinguished. Still, our thoughts were on 
the father who had gone from us, and we could not 
well do justice to the son. 



CHAPTER VI. 

!'| ~ HIS MORAL FIEMNESS. 

As true character is known by its devotion to moral 
principle^ and as truth is truth always and everywhere, 
he who gives his life to its support and upbuilding, 

I carries with him along down the years the conscious 
elements of his own protection, as well as that of the 
public w^elfare. Even the most splendid talents can 
not impart character where simple truth is disregarded, 
or where moral principle is set at defiance. In all such 
cases, even genius itself is found to be but a flash of 
deception, and its brightest corruscations are nothing 
more than sad deceptions. 

But the world is full of such failures, and men are 
found mourning their personal defeats, when they 
should only be blaming themselves for their own moral 
delinquencies. The dead dog lies at their doors, slain 
by their own hands, and if the stench of his demise 

! has created sickening disgust, they should have the 
good sense, if not the honor, to place the mortuary 
credit to their own disregard of morals and principle. 

What strength is to the physical man, moral firm- 
ness is to the Christian. The one gives energy and 
life to bone and muscle ; while the other endows the 
moral hero with the mastery of himself, and the re- 

I sources of a life of the highest and noblest activities. 
Even education itself fails to give character or stabil- 

J ity where the honor of moral principle is disregarded. 



60 



At this very point thousands err. They think that 
intelligence is attainment^ and that Avealth is power; 
and so they may be^ but the one without principle is 
but the dashing steed without his rider^ while the other 
mocks its possessor with only the foulest distortions. 

In the lives of many^ policy assumes the guardian- 
ship of both truth and morals^ and holds the reins of 
its empire with a grip of tenacity as determined and 
obstinate as though there was no reality in either. 
They seem not to believe there is wrong in any sort of 
duplicity^ and as for sound and consistent principle^ it 
appears to be totally unrecognized by them. Hanging 
only on the outskirts of moral goverment^ such men 
are never ready to assume responsibility — no matter to 
what extent it may involve the right^ or comprehend 
the public welfare. Personal interest is their motive 
power^ and to this they cling, with tenacity, as if it 
was the only plank of their individual safety. 

The lives of all such time-servers, are but miserable 
comments upon either worth or goodness^ and we can 
not but hold them up as moral abortions. 

The exemplification given us in the unflinching 
integrity of the martyr Stephen, stands in eternal con- 
trast with all such moral instability; and though he 
lost his life by his steadfastness, he gained the glory of 
a personal renown which is second only to that of the 
great Master himself. 

The display of any such virtue is more than heroic, 
because it gives to principle its noblest adherence, and 
sacrifices interest on the alter of integrity. 

It was this sort of devotion to principle which gave 



61 

i 

jl such honorable prominence to the Christian life and 
j ministry of Father Havens. AVhat he understood to 
! be right and true he adhered to^ no matter who opposed 
I him^ or what might be the circumstances of his oppo- 
' sition. He felt that his commission as a gospel min- 
ister^ held him responsible for the cause of truth and 
. right^ and the honor and purity of the Church every- 
where^ that in the pulpit or out of it^ he was God^s 
embassador, and he always appeared to recognize an 
attack upon truth, or right, or virtue, as an insult to 
himself and his profession, and whether it raised a 
storm, or looked like casting pearl before swine, he 
instinctively entered the contest if he even had to fight 
the battle single handed and alone. Fearing no one but 
his Maker, particularly, when religion or virtue was in 
jeopardy — he often entered the arena of contest when 
other ministers, who he believed were as good if not 
better than himself, would beg for him to hold on, 
least the effort might make the matter even worse 
than it was. 

I An incident which occurred on one of his circuits 
will illustrate this moral firmness of Father Havens, 

j as well as give to the reader some idea of the manner 
' in which the old time pioneer preachers laid the 

foundations of the great Church of the west. 

The wife of an infidel in the bounds of his circuit 

was reported to be in a dying condition with consump- 

II tion and anxious for some minister of the gospel to 
!j^ visit and administer to her the consolations of religion. 

A minister of another church had already made an 
effort to visit her, but he had been driven away from 



62 



the house with violence by the wicked and infidel 
husband. 

At one of his appointments some six miles distant^ 
Father Havens learned of this lady^s condition and 
healthy and of the eiFort of his brother minister to 
serve her^ and he determined at once to visit her let 
the consequences be what they might. 

Persuading one of his congregation to accompany 
him^ the fearless Circuit Rider started for the place, 
while his entire congregation felt that he was going 
into danger that might cost him his life. 

Arriving at the house a little before sundown, they 
hitched their horses and entered the dwelling, where 
in a small room they found the almost dying woman. 
Her mild blue eyes, now deeply sunken beneath their 
pale arches, her high forehead and intelligent contour, 
indicated her to be much more than of the common 
mould. Her long tresses of auburn hair hanging 
loosely about her head, showed that the poor woman 
notwithstanding their wealth was cursed with physical, 
as well as moral neglect. 

Aroused by the sudden entrance of the visitors, she 
cast her eyes on them with a wild glare which showed 
her surprise. But soon learning who they were and 
the object of their visit, her countenance brightened 
up with mingled emotions of joy and sorrow, and she 
said with a sweet voice : 

" I am very glad to see you, Mr. Havens, but I fear 
my husband will abuse you, if he should come in and 
find you here.^^ 

Mr. Havens informed her that she need have no 



63 

fears in that regard^ for be was well protected, and 
felt fully prepared for any emergency. 

He then enterered into conversation with her and 
found that she was deeply interested in the subject 
of religion, and anxious for her souPs eternal interests. 
He sang, and talked, and prayed, with her, and as the 
husband did not appear, and it was getting late in the 
evening, he suggested to his friend, who had accompa- 
nied him, that they had better put up their horses 
and feed them, as they would probably remain through 
the nightc 

Mr. Havens, after the horses were put up and fed, 
returned to the sick chamber, and renewed his conver- 
sation with the dying woman. He was thus engaged, 
when the husband made his appearance, and the dying 
w^ife informed him who Mr. Havens was, and ex- 
plained to him the object of his visit. 

The vicious and infidel husband, regardless of the 
tender feelings of his poor wife, cast the look of a 
tiger, when it is about to spring upon its prey, on the 
minister and said : 

^^A Preacher, ha! Well, who sent for you, sir?" 
No one," responded Mr. Havens, firmly. I heard 
of the low condition of your wife^s health, sir, and I 
considered it my duty to visit her." 

Well, sir," retorted the unfeeling husband, with a 
scowl, " the sooner you get out of this house, and quit 
my premises, the better it will be for you." 

^^It is now dark," responded Mr. Havens, "and as 
there is no place within reach, where we can find lodg- 
ings, you will not surely turn us out of your house." 



64 



Calling to mind a pious brother of this inhospitable 
unbeliever^ Mr. Havens said : 

I knew your brother^ sir^ and if he were still liv- 
ing, he would be most deeply mortified to know you 
refused to entertain a minister of the gospel^ who has 
traveled six miles to visit your sick wife.^^ 

Do not talk to me of my brother/^ said the enraged 
man. He is dead. While he w^as living, we prom- 
ised each other, that whoever died fiTst^ that he would 
come back and give some account of the other world. 
But he has either gone to hell^ and can not come back^ 
or else there is no hereafter.^^ 

" You are in doubt then/^ said Mr. Havens, enquir- 
ingly. 

" No sir, I am not/^ he responded. I do not be- 
lieve the bible at all, although I have as good a one as 
anybody. I sometimes read it, but I do not believe a 
word it contains.'^ Then gathering it from his book 
case he handed it to Mr. Havens, who opened it and 
began reading one of the Psalms, and when he had fin- 
ished it, he said : " Jjet us pray once more v/ith your 
poor dying wife,^^ 

He then knelt by the side of the dying woman^ 
down whose cheeks the warm tears were coursing, and 
offered up a fervent and feeling prayer in her behalf. 
The cowed infidel stood like a statue, gazing upon the 
minister, and then upon his wife, and when the prayer 
was finished, he left the room without a word. 

Mr. Havens and his companion soon after retired 
for the night, in a room to which the sick wife directed 
them, but they scarcely got to sleep when they heard 



65 



the running of horses and the yelpine of dogs^ and it 
was not hard for theni to devise Avhat was up. Their 
horses had been turned out of the stable and the dogs 
were set on them. 

Mr, Havens and liis friend sprang out of bed and 
made for the barn yard, vrhere they found tiie poor 
eifete skeptic crouching in the shadow of the barn. 
Driving oii" the dogs and approaching their owner, Mr. 
Havens enquired of him what he meant by such con- 
duct^ and assured him if he did not desist in his mean- 
ness, he would set the doses on him. 

Avering that tlie Iiorses had got out themselves, the 
fellovs' swore that if they got out again^ he would ''dog 
them to hell and back.'' There is where you are 
going yourself sir/*' retorted Mr. Havens. without 
any dogging, and if you don't do better you will get 
there before you are aware of it.'' The horses were 
put up again, when they once more retired to their 
bed^ where they slept undisturbedi until morning. 
They arose early with the intention of leaving before 
breakfast, and passing into the chamber of the sick 
wife, they were aVjout bidding her good bye, vrhen the 
husband accompanied by two large rough looking fel- 
lows entered the room^ and reque.-ted them not to 
leave so suddenly. 

You would not go last night when I wanted you 
to/'* said he: ■'so now^ before you leave us. we want 
one of the best specimens of your praying, that we may 
know what sort of religion you have.'' This he said 
in a leering and contemptuous manner ; and as he fin- 



66 



ished^ he handed Mr. Havens the Bible^ /Hhat the per- 
formance, might begin 

This was just what the preacher desired^ and open- 
ing the Bible he deliberately read several portions of 
scripture, and then knelt by the bedside of the afflicted 
v/ife, and with his eyes wide open he began his prayer. 
He thanked the Lord for his mercies for their preserva- 
tion through the night, and asked, with great sincerity^ 
that his richest blessings might rest upon the poor sick 
and dying woman. He then told the Lord what sort 
of a husband she had, putting in a few iron-clad utter- 
ances, which, under other circumstances, might have 
been called pointed and personal. The husband sat in 
his chair, as did also his two companions, all wincing 
under the withering rebukes given them. In the hands 
of the man and preacher, on his knees, they were seem- 
ingly held spell-bound, and the prayer was finished 
without the least interruption. 

After breakfast they left, feeling that God had given 
them the victory, and that they had done their duty 
toward an amiable Christian woman, whose transient 
life here on earth was soon to terminate in that of the 
immortal. 

It was thus some of the early ministerial pioneers 
were called upon " to beard the lion in his den,^^ and 
unpleasant and even dangerous as the duty sometimes 
was, many of them met the emergency with a heroic 
faith and fearless spirit, wliich but seldom quailed 
under any circumstances. 

It was difficult for the heroic soul of Father Havens 
to submit to anything like an officious dictation in 



67 



regard to any duty he felt was due to himself, to his 
congregations^ or to his Maker. In all such sacred 
matters, he felt that the responsibility was peculiarly 
his own^ and on this account he chose^ in most cases^ to 
be his own arbiter. 

A few years before his death, he paid a visit to Cin- 
cinnati^ where he spent a Sabbath and preached one of 
the most vigorous and eloquent sermons of his life. 
The minister who invited him to preach took special 
pains to tell him that the people would not listen to a 
sermon over a half hour in length ; and the venerable 
old Presiding Elder read his text and started out in 
his discussion of its doctrines in his usual style, with- 
out much reference to either time or circumstances. 
The congregation was deeply interested, and every eye 
^ was fixed npon the earnest and eloquent white-haired 
I stranger. . They knew that he was Father Havens, of 
Indiana, for he had been so introduced by the young 
pastor. Just as he came to the middle of his sermon, 
he pulled out his watch, and looking at it, said: 

^^I am sorry, my brethren, that my half hour is up. 
This good young brother, your honored pastor, told me 
this morning that you would not listen to a sermon 
over a half hour long. My time, I -see, is up, and I 
must quit and take my seat.^^ 

^^No, no,^^ ^^go on. Father Havens,^^ ^Sve will hear 
you,^^ ^'go on, go ahead, came from all parts of the 
house. The whole congregation seemed to have caught 
the inspiration of the sermon, and they were unwilling 
that the services should close with only half of it. 
^^I thank you, my brethren, for the compliment you 



68 



pay to the Gospel, and to its divine author/^ said the 
venerable preacher, and then, with an energy even 
beyond himself, for another half hour or more, he held 
the large assembly with that old time gospel grasp, 
w^hich many remember he was wont to do in the best 
days of his strength and power. Many w^ho heard him 
that day, said, Indiana Methodism may well be proud 
of that ^ old man eloquent.^ 



69 



CHAPTER YII. 

HIS HEEOIC SPIEIT. 

XoBlLiTY of character is^ perhaps, as definitely illus- 
trated in the moral heroism of ones life^ as it is^ or can 
be^ in any other specific trait. Quit you like men/^ 
is an apostolic injunction which points to this distinc- 
tive excellency with inspired power. St. Paul was 
himself a moral hero of the highest caste^ and in 
commending this noble trait to others^ he understood 
the high and imperial force of its character. In the 
heroic manhood of life^ which he so distinctively 
demonstrated throughout his entire apostolic history^ 
he gave legitimate proof of that superior claim which 
he had^ as the chiefest among all the Apostles. 

Heroism^ indeed^ is always essential to true great- 
ness^ and men are men^ in any relation of life^ only in 
proportion as they develop and sustain the heroic 
virtues. A coward in principle is never a hero in 
anything. He may shift his positions and make pre- 
tensions^ where nothing but his own selfish interests 
are at stake^ and when many^ better men than himself 
are guarding the posts of danger, but after all he sums 
up only a practical cypher ; and living or dead, the 
world has but little to boast of in his history. 

AVith Mr. Havens the Xew Testament contained the 
true theology of life, and hence he made it the basis of 
his thouoiit — the rulino; anthoritv of all his devotions. 
He there saw concentrated purity, stability and all the 



70 



benevolent charities of the heroic life, which he aimed 
to demonstrate in his own career^ and in which he 
succeeded in an admirable degree^ as all will admit 
who knew him well^ as one among the many itinerant 
advocates and defenders of the Christian faith. Indeed, 
there was always something in the very spirit of the 
man, indicative of the hero, for he appeared ever to 
be master of the situation and ready for any and every 
emergency. The fulfilment of his duties as an itiner- 
ant Methodist Preacher gave him frequent opportu- 
nities of making his record before the public eye in 
such characters as led many to style him The Old 
war horse of Indiana Methodism/^ while Hon. Oliver 
H. Smith, who knew him for forty years, gave him 
the sobriquet of " the General Jackson of Indiana 
Methodist Preachers. 

In almost any of the relationships of life, Mr. 
Havens would have won heroic laurels, for he was a 
^^character,^^ sui generis — original, independent and 
fearless. In all the relations he sustained in his 
Church — though making no pretensions himself — he 
was always honored and recognized by his brethren, 
as a Chief worthy of double honors. These he often 
received, but seemingly, without any conviction of 
their flattering character, for he placed but a light 
estimate on the compliments of popular favor, because 
he well knew that the breeze which created them was 
often only incidental, and that the breath which could 
destroy them was as inconstant as the winds. In his 
own belief, his duties to God, and his obligations to 
man, constituted the ruling laws of his life, and he 



71 



consequently bowed to them as to the only fulcrum 
which could raise him to power, or that could confer 
upon him any permanent honor. It was this knowl- 
edge of his responsibilities^ which had grown to be a 
part of his nature, that gave to his whole action and 
life, the straight edge of a scrupulous conscientiousness^ 
and often led him to deeds of daring in the perform- 
ance of his duty, where others winced and faltered, 
least they might meet with defeat, or mar the non- 
combativeness of their character. It was consequently 
in agreement with his genius, to meet responsibilities 
with manly firmness and to endeavor under all circum- 
atances, to execute his life mission, fearless of the 
whims of human caprice, and often apparently reckless 
of any ultimate worldly fame. 

Many stories are told of him that he sometimes even 
used physical arguments in extreme cases. But it was 
very evident, in all these instances, that he considered 
this mode of argumentation the only one such men 
would listen to, and the only one which could give him 
the victory. 

At one of the Conferences Mr. Havens attended, 
some member, who professed to have a complaint 
against him, objected to the passing of his character 
until he would have a private talk with him. Con- 
scious of his owm integrity in the case of the brother's 
involvement, and nervously sensitive of his own good 
name and standing in the Conference, the old fires of 
his younger years were stirred within him, and he 
demanded of the chair that the vote be taken at once, 
^^as he w^as ready to waive all by laws on the subject." 



72 

He wighed^ if any one had aught to say of him^ or of 
his acts or character, that he would speak out right 
there before the whole Conference. He was ready for 
any revelation that might be made, and prepared to 
meet friend or foe in any dissection that might be 
made of his character. 

It was late in the evening, and the Conference was 
about to adjourn for the day, and the President pro- 
posed that his case should lie over until the next 
morning. This proposition, though coming from the 
Bishop did not savor well with the old veteran of a 
hundred battles, and he insisted that the vote be taken 
then. ^^He did not wish his character hung up all 
night.^' The Bishop said it would do no harm to lay 
it over. This, Mr. Havens thought was a partiality 
unbecoming the chair, and he turned to the Conference, 
and said, I am sorry to see the Chair lending itself 
to a party.'^ The Bishop who knew Feather Havens 
as well as he knew any minister, and perhaps respected 
him as highly — but still intent on having everything 
done in accordance with the by-laws of the Confer- 
ence, only remarked, " I think, brethren, that Brother 
Havens is insinuating.^^ 

^^No, Bishop,'^ responded Mr. Havens, ''1 am not; 
for I mean just what I say, and say just what I mean.'^ 

The Bishop well knew who was meeting him, and 
not wishing to have any collision with the oldest 
itinerant of the State, made no reply, but passed on to 
other business, and so it happened, to use his own 
phrase, that " his character hung up all night. But 
when the morning came, in company with two others, 



73 



he had seen the troubled brother^ and his character 
passed^ as it always had for more than forty years^ 
without the smell of fire on it. 

Mr. Havens was pot disposed to be disrespectful to 
official dignitaries^ nor ^¥as he unmindful of the honors 
due to station or power. He was respectful to all^ but 
still he feared no superior in office^ when he thought 
he was in the wrongs however great might be his 
intellectual strength or his perso nal dignity. 

The self possession of Mr. Havens was usually suffi- 
cient for every emergency^ and whenever vice was to 
be rebuked^ or wrong was to be put down^ his heroic 
spirit was manifest^ and his language was never equiv- 
ocal. Hence many opportunities were seized by him 
which others would perhaps pass by, to reform, if 
possible, even the most reckless. Thus many, who 
jj were found by the wayside, received the benefit of his 
labors as a minister, who otherwise, might have gone 
down to their death without a sigh of sympathy or an 
effort of redemption. 

On one occasion, when on his way to Conference, 
w^hich was about to convene at New Albany, he in 
company with a number of his ministerial brethren, 
took passage on a steamer where Mr. Foote, United 
States Senator from Mississippi, and Mr. Samuel 
Houston, Senator from Texas, were passengers; on 
their way from Washington to their distant southern 
homes. 

Mr. Havens and his brethren — Wiley, Simpson and 
others — were introduced to these distinguished states- 
men, and the company engaged at once in that sort of 
7 



74 



agreeable chit chat which is so often the life of trav- 
eling greetings. Of course the conversation was toned 
well if it was not altogether clerical. But they were 
surrounded by the mixed throng of a crowded steamer 
and it was not long until they were interrupted by the 
profanity and vociferous disputations of some young 
men, who were engaged in playing cards near by. Of 
their conduct and profanity Mr. Foote, who was dis- 
tinguished for his polished and gentlemanly bearing, 
said, " I wonder if those young men have any moral 
feeling adding with evident indignation, ^^if they 
have, it is certainly shamefully obscured.^^ One of the 
ministers thought they had none, which conclusion 
became general. The matter was referred to Mr. 
Havens, as he was known to be an expert in reading 
character, when the old apostle threw his eye on the 
gambling crowd, and pausing for a few moments, lie 
remarked that one of the young men, whom he pointed 
out, was, in his belief, possessed of even high moral 
feelings. 

^^How do you learn that Mr. Havens asked Sen- 
ator Houston. 

"If I can^t convince you of the fact^^ he replied, 
" I can satisfy myself w^hether I am right,^^ and he 
arose from his seat, and approaching the group, he 
laid his hand kindly on the shoulder of the young 
man, and said, "Young man, as soon as you get done 
playing out your hand I desire to speak to you in 
private.^^ Then folding his arms he stood over the 
young man a silent spectator of the game. The young 
gentleman was evidently taken by surprise and grew 



75 



quite agitated and nervous. Several times he turned 
his head and looked up in the venerable face before 
him^ but seemed unable to analyze the mysterious 
influence it was exerting over him. At the close of 
the game the young man arose hurriedly and informed 
Mr. Havens he was at his service. Conducting him 
to the rear of the cabin Mr. Havens said to him : 

Young man^ you will probably regard this as a 
great liberty and intrusion^ when I inform you that I 
never saw your face before to-night. But I hope you 
will pardon me if I have clone wrongs as it is your 
present and future welfare alone which has prompted 
me thus to speak to you.^^ 

Here he paused^ but still kept his eyes steadily fixed 
on the young man^s. 

Go on/^ said the listener respectfully^ I will hear 
you/^ 

^^I am the father of eight boys/^ resumed Mr. 
Havens^ ^^and I love them as a father loves his chil- 
dren. I have seen the company you have been in 
to-night, and I have witnessed the wicked practices 
into which they are leading you. You are a respecta- 
ble looking young man^ and doubtless have good and 
pious parents who pray for you every day of their 
lives. How do you think/^ he asked^ would 
feel if they knew the company you have been with 
to-night?'' 

^^I have parents who are living/' the young man 
responded^ ^^and I would not like for them to know 
one word of where I have been to-night. I know they 
love me as a son^ and always remember me in all their 
prayers." 



76 



^^I thought so/' resumed Mr. Havens^ *^^for I am a 
father myself, as I have already told you; and I know 
if any one should find one of my boys in such com- 
pany as I have found you in to-night, and would 
endeavor to persuade him from the error of his ways, 
though he failed in his effort, I should feel that I never 
could repay him for his kindness. I saw you first/' 
continued Mr. Havens, to-night, and I may never 
see you again, but I feel a strange interest in your 
welfare. I hope, my son, you will forever quit all 
such associates, and I have no doubt if you do, you 
will always be thankful to God for it.'' 

When Mr. Havens ceased, the young man was in 
tears. He felt the power of such an exhortation. 

" I will play no more to-night," said the young man, 
^^and I Avill try, sir, to remember your advice." 

He asked for the name and residence of Mr. Havens, 
which were freely given to him, when they parted with 
pleasant adieus for the night. Two years after this, 
Mr. Havens received a letter from this young man, 
who was a citizen of Tennessee, giving him the grati- 
fying intelligence of his conversion and reform. 

In hundreds of instances of this character did the 
old itinerant hero, display the personal excellencies of 
his ministry, for it was in this way he won many who 
became stars in the crown of his rejoicing. His Mas- 
ter's work was always his highest obligation, and if he 
performed a deed of daring in any of these plunges 
after a sinking soul, it was never in view of any per- 
sonal aggrandizement, or with any purposes of egotis- 
tical accomplishment. The ardor of the hero Avas his, 



77 



without one spark of his vanity. Flattery he hated, 
because he esteemed it as the language of deceit; and 
as he was a stranger to cowardice, he but seldom 
dreamed of danger in any act of duty. He never 
hesitated to speak against sin, no matter how great 
might be the sinner, and his attacks were often per- 
sonal ones, like the one we have just related. 

Hon. O. H. Smith, in his Early Reminiscences, says: 
^^I knew James Havens well. He seemed to be made 
for the very work in which he was engaged. He had 
the eye of the eagle, and possessed both moral and 
personal courage that never quailed. He was the 
Napoleon of Methodist preachers of Eastern Indiana.'^ 

It was this heroic feature in the character of Mr. 
Havens, more than anything else, which gave him 
power among the people and made him prominent. 
They loved him for his decision and firmness, and for 
his personal sacrifices; and whenever they attended 
any of his meetings, they expected a square gospel 
meal of honest truth, without any of the sickly condi- 
ments of flattering eulogy, or the plastering compli- 
ments of a yielding sycopancy. He bore bravely, all 
through his ministry, the banner of a soldier w^ho 
never feared to fight, and who dreaded no defeat, no 
matter who was the foe. 



78 



CHAPTER YIII. 

KNOWLEDGE OF MEN. 

To be a christian^ one must know himself^ but to be 
a practical and successful minister^ he must have 
a knowledge of men. Human nature furnishes the 
objective points of his oiBcial action, and therefore 
he should master the philosophy of human idiosyncra- 
sies, in order that he may know how and where to strike 
the chords of moral emotion. Hundreds who are 
scholars, both in thought and science, have almost 
utterly failed in their profession as ministers, because 
they have never understood human nature. Defective 
in what is termed common sense/^ thev have read 
books, but not men. Masters in technical theology, 
they are only stunted infants in their knowledge of 
men. They have been patient students of the divine 
truth and purposes, and yet they know but little of 
that human animus on which they are to operate. 

The demonstration is of frequent occurrence, where 
the mere teaching of the theology of the books,^^ to 
a people who have never read them, or much of any- 
thing else, has resulted only in the production of a sort 
of mechanical Christianity — where the brains are pol- 
ished but the heart is left as unregenerate, as if it had 
never even been aimed at. 

The admission is often made even among the evan- 
gelical, that it is not the province of science or scho- 
lastic theology to regenerate. They tell us they may 



79 



enlighten and elevate^ but tliey can not initiate the 
soul, or convey it into the Kingdom. This work is 
done by the Divine power^ alone^ and yet we know 
man^s nature and man\s weaknesses must be studied and 
understood^ in order that his moral predilections may 
be comprehended and his special depravities be fully 
known. Where this is done, the minister may move 
among his fellow men with the requisite knowledge of 
his holy office^ and be able to direct them according to 
their several capacities. 

It was in this department of ministerial accomplish- 
ment especially, that Father Havens excelled most of 
his brethren^ for it was the great book indeed, of his 
elementary study ; and early in life, he was led to its 
mastery by the law of necessity as well as from the 
natural dictates of his own common sense. To know 
men in their dispositions and in the inner workings of 
their thoughts and faith, and in their moral determina- 
tions, was much of his life ambition, and to accomplish 
this purpose, he often brought men of all classes^ 
whom he would happen to meet, to a test point, by 
arguments and questions ; and when he once learned 
where they stood, however much they might differ 
with him, he frequently complimented them for their 
bold thought and intellectual independence ; and yet 
before leaving; them he almost alwavs cautioned them 
against living a life of moral carelessness. 

In his life-long study of human character, he be- 
came convinced that ^^the stuff it is made of^^ was not 
all gold. He also well knew that the moral defect was 
universal, and that instability, both in purpose and 



80 



character^ was the common inheritance of all. Hence 
it was but seldom he ever misjudged any one^ when he 
had once thoroughly scanned him. But if he ever did^ 
and was afterward made sensible of it^ no man was 
more free or frank to confess it^ or more ready to 
acknowledge it. He has often been known to go to 
individuals^ who were much inferior to him in every- 
thing that constitutes respectability or character^ in 
order to apologize to them for the opinion or belief he 
had expressed in regard to them. The nobleness of 
his nature was such^ in this regard^ that he but seldom 
failed to express the same opinions of men in their 
presence that he would or had in their absence. He 
read men as scholars read books^ and he turned over 
page after page of their characters^ until he was satis- 
fied ; and when he was done, there were but few who 
had the power to deceive him. 

The work of his ministry was chiefly all performed 
in the itinerancy^ in which, in the earlier days especi- 
ally, he was often brought in conflict with men of the 
baser sort — reckless and careless men, who were always 
ready for any sort of an onslaught on the church, her 
ministry and membership. But it did not matter how 
boastful these men were, or how daringly they threat- 
ened, Father Havens was always ,ready to stand his 
ground, and to maintain his rights and privileges. He 
was not disposed to fall back and yield, even for the 
sake of peace or quiet. His own ideas were, that if 
the devil was mad, he had no authority to order or 
command him. Then, he well knew that a defiant, 
boastful sinner was nearly always a coward, and that 



81 



men of brass countenances could but seldom lay claim 
to superior brains. Hence^ he had but little reverence 
for the one, or fear of the others. His command over 
such characters was generally as peculiar as it was 
heroic. Most of them feared him. and they not unfre- 
quently manifested toward him a respect and reverence 
which they were not disposed to show toward any other 
minister. They knew that ^^old sorrel/^ as they often 
called him, was game to the backbone/^ and Avhen he 
was about, they understood they had to be on their 
good behavior. 

In etiquette Father Havens was always as frank as 
he was sincere and independent. Still, he made but 
little pretensions to style or polish, and on this account 
he was somewhat more liable to personal collisions 
wdth uncouth characters than was common with many 
other Methodist ministers. But this ^peculiarity only 
served to give him the greater prominence, and to 
open up before him a wider door of personal influence 
and power among the people wherever he traveled^ or 
was sent to labor. 

Always profound in thought and cautious in forming 
his opinions of men^ he but seldom uttered an expres- 
sion of any one that he subsequently found himself 
mistaken in, and obligated to retract. 

There were times and circumstances however^ when 
some thought him severe — for he but seldom sugar 
coated his pills, particularly, where he knew that the 
parties charged, w^ere playing the game of hypocracy, 
and were aiming to deceive even the very elect.'^ 

If he ever stood like a wall of adamant against a 
8 



82 



man, he believed in the wrong, it was because his own 
convictions of right would not permit him to do other- 
wise, without compromising either the truth of facts, 
or the rights of principle, neither of which he could 
do, and still respect himself as a man, a Christian or a 
minister in the pulpit. Father Havens often displayed 
his thorough knowledge of human character. He 
understood that his public teachings were for the 
benefit of the multitude and therefore he often dealt 
with them with a knife of dissection, which at times 
was sharpened up to the keenest edge, and which he 
applied without regard to social pretensions or even 
religious professions. With that fervid and pungent 
eloquence so characteristic of his pulpit efforts, he 
would give to saint and sinner his due portion of 
truth with but little thought of what any of them 
might think of him when his discourse was finished. 

Many who heard him often trembled for his popu- 
larity. They feared that his plainness of speech and 
withering rebukes, would bring down upon him the 
hot indignation of his audiences. But he understood 
when and where to strike, as he also knew that the 
impudent boldness of sin, required a bold hand to 
bring it down, and therefore he stood up before the 
people, as one who feared not the face of man. 

The remarkable success of his ministry was undoubt- 
edly largely attributable to his plain personal admo- 
nitions and reproofs, in season and out of season, 
which he often administered without regard to persons, 
places, or circumstances. He kne*w men too well to 
consent to sinful compromises with them. However 



83 



wealthy or distinguished for their social force, they 
could bring no power to bear against him, to make 
him afraid to meet them, or to tell them of their 
wrongs. Those who knew him well always knew 
where they might find him on every moral question, 
for he wore no disguises and never held back his 
opinions for fear they would be unacceptable or 
unpopular. 

Even when he was in the wrong as it is admitted he 
sometimes was, he always gave evidence that it was 
an error of the head and not of the heart. But being 
a minister of the heroic stamp, and always subject to 
the power of impulse, it should certainly be set down 
to his credit, that it was but seldom he ever misjudged 
men, or their motives, or called in question their rights 
or privileges. W^hat he accorded to otliers he however 
rigidly claimed for himself, and therefore it was always 
a dangerous experiment to come in conflict with any 
of his reserved rights or privileges. 

The following authentic story is appropos on this 
point : 

At one of his camp meetings in the State of Ohio 
he became very seriously annoyed by the rough and 
boisterous conduct of a large and robust man by the 
name of McDaniels, who was creating a disturbance of 
the religious services. Xearly every one was afraid of 
the huge monster and no one dared to approach him. 

Father Havens being fully convinced in his own 
mind that McDaniels would not dare to strike him, he 
determined ^^to beard the lion in his den.^^ He found 
him, a half hour later, some distance from the encamp- 



84 



ment^ surrounded by his boon companions, and still 
planning mischief against the meeting. He approached 
him alone, and commenced conversation, and began to 
rebuke him for his mean and cowardly conduct. Mc- 
Daniels tried to defend himself, but Father Havens 
going a little nearer to him, said : 

^^I know you, sir; I know your name and family; 
and I know, sir, that you have a respectable father and 
kind mother, who would blush with shame to learn of 
your conduct at this camp meeting. I think, sir, you 
had better resolve to come into the congregation, and 
take your seat like a decent white man should, and you 
will feel at least that you are a more respectable, if not 
a better man.^^ 

Who^s agoing to preach ? asked the reckless rowdy. 

Why, sir,^^ responded Father Havens, I am going 
to try to preach myself.^^ 

^' Well, if I go in and hear you, will you agree to 
pray for me?^^ the rowdy asked. 

Yes, sir, I will,^^ Father Havens responded. 

Well, then, I'll be on hand,'' said McDaniels; go 
and get your trumpet ready, and we'll all come in and 
hear you." 

Father Havens took the man at his word, turned 
away from him, and repaired to the stand where preach- 
ing was about to commence. The horn was sounded, 
and the people assembled, and among them was Mc- 
Daniels and his crew. 

Father Havens read his hymn, and the people sang 
with spirit and power. But before he asked the people 
to kneel in prayer, he informed the audience that he 



85 



^^had made a solemn promise out in the woods^ a few 
minutes ago^ to pray for one Mr. McDaniels, who, he 
was ,2:lad to see, Avas in the congregation, and he wished 
every christian in tlie assembly to join him in praying 
for him. I know the man/'" he remarked, ^'and I am 
glad to say to this congregation that this Mr. McDan- 
iels is respectably connected, and would, no doubt, 
make a good man and a valuable member of the 
Church, if he Avas only once converted.'' 

The congregation then kneeled in prayer, and Father 
Havens offered up a most devout petition in behalf of 
his improvised subject.'^ Strange as it may seem^ 
before that camp meeting closed, McDaniels joined the 
.Church, and in after years he became a pillar in it, and 
remained such through a long life of usefulness and 
piety. 

Man^ years afterward, at one of his camp meetings 
in the AYhite AVater country, as was customary, he 
was called upon as Presiding Elder to take up the 
regular qnarterly collection for the support of the cir- 
cuit preachers. It was Sunday and the audience was 
large, and of course he made his appeal for a liberal 
collection. He told his audience that all could give 
something, and that many should give liberally. Then 
turning to his right, where he saw seated a popular 
candidate for Congress, he added: Here is my 
friend, Hon. Oliver H. Smith, a candidate for Con- 
gress, he will give ten dollars, I have no doubt. Mr. 
Smith of course felt himself sold for the occasion, and 
it only remained for him to come down with the 
" dust/-^ 



86 



Father Havens read the character of men at a glance, 
and if it had not been for his conservative caution, he 
could have given the outlines of their characters with 
as much precision, perhaps, as most of our phrenologi- 
cal philosophers. His study of men, however, for the 
most part, had reference more to their moral status 
than to their intellectual. His business was with 
men^s goodness and badness, and he gave his thoughts 
this direction as a matter of professional duty, in order 
that he might the better fulfill the great purposes of 
his calling, and show himself a minister who need not 
be ashamed. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OPPOSITION TO IXX0YATI02s^S. 

The opposition vrhich age sometiPoies offers to the 
inuovatioDS of the times, is often attributed to the 
ignorance or old-fa-hioned bigotry of the objectors, 
^^dlen, in fact, it sh^iiild sometimes at least be taken as 
good evidence of their intelligent discernment and vir- 
tues. Society, as is well knovn, is not always benefit- 
ted by what is termed the footsteps of progress, and 
therefore due credit should be given to the conserva- 
tive ^xho are disposed to hold it in cheeky as well as to 
-those who are so anxious to grease the wheels of its 
advancement to what they term the higher civilization. 
Simiilicitv of charaorer often makes men better, rather 
than the ostentation of superior pretensions, and on this 
account S'jme of our old time ministers have been led 
to think but indirferently of many of our modern 
Chtirch innovations. They thought, and no doubt 
with some reason too, that the advances of pride were 
often more to be feared than that unsophisticated sim- 
plicity which is satisfied with its own native manners, 
rather than with the tinsel and allurements of any 
mere worldly display. 

Personal goodness has not usually found its wisest 
preceptors among the innovators of the age, or its 
most reliable guardians in what is called the higher 
walks of society. The spirit of the world is there, we 
admit; but then the aiiinity between it and the sterner 
virtues, thotigh it is sometimes polite and formal, is 



88 



but seldom either genuine or real. The arrogant pre- 
tensions of the one is wholly antagonistic to the simple 
humility of the other; and therefore those who find 
fault with the latter, because it appears to be awkward 
and unsophisticated, only find fault with forms and ap- 
pearances, when they should see and know there is 
neither lack of principle nor w^ant of virtue. 

The education of such men as Mr. Havens in the 
cabins of the West, as might well be presumed^ W'Ould 
be both natural and simple, and without much polish 
of any sort. Indeed, the very simplicity of those early 
times gave to them the baptism of a native honesty^ 
which became a part of their personal natures, and 
which, in spite of their future surroundings, governed 
them in their subsequent years. 

But it was in his Methodist education that Mr. 
Havens became the most scrupulous. It was his first 
love in the science of moral principle, and he clung to 
it with a life-time tenacity in its original forms, because 
his early prejudices had taught him it Avas the ne plus 
ultra of the purest Christian truth. What it had done 
for him he knew was real, and therefore as an honest 
man he wanted all otliers to partake of the same pure 
waters. 

Methodism, then, was as pure as it was simple, and 
as sin-killing as it was spiritual. It was as innocent 
of all formal display as it was loud and dogmatic 
against the popular vices of the day. It asked no 
favors of the world of fashion, and bore down upon 
the rich with as bold a hand as upon the poor and the 
insignificant. Its theology recognized no divinity in 



89 



wealth, and wherever it was preached it was under- 
stood to be a crusade against the world, the flesh, and 
the devil/^ without regard to persons or relationships. 
It was this fearless independence which gave it char-' 
acter as well as power among the people, and enabled 
it to win its way, and to establish its dominion in 
almost every neighborhood of the great broad West. 

In the growth of the country and the developments 
of society, as it became more wealthy, there was a 
natural desire to leave behind many of the old land 
marks, and to fall in with more popular and new 
fangled notions. The old styles, many thought had 
had their day ; and led on by some intelligent and 
enterprising Yankee, or seduced away by some half 
way but worldly minded Methodist, the people were 
ready to forget the simple economy of the good old 
western Church, and to fall in with almost any popular 

progression which might be made. It therefore 
became necessary for the Circuit rider to keep a sharp 
look-out among his people, and to warn them against 
all the delusions and seducements of the day. 

Among the early preachers of the west the use of 
notes in the pulpit was considered almost as great a 
dereliction, as the reading of a sermon out-right. 
With most of them this conviction was a palpable 
one ; as they were taught by even their ablest marks- 
men, that all such gospel services could only end in 
formality and in most instances would be exceedingly 
displeasing to the people. 

Of course Mr. Havens with the rest adopted these 
prejudices, and they more or less governed him all his 



ii 

90 ' 

life. No matter how well written a sermon might be, i 
the reading of it was not called preaching ; and when i 
one of these reading preachers, one Sabbath in the -i 
•court house in Connersville called upon him to close i 
the services, Mr. Havens prayed the Lord to bless the ij 
sermon which had just. been i^ead to them. Of course ji 
the young Presbyterian Brother felt the cut; but as his i 
Church justified his course he made no effort at retort. 
Mr. Havens thought the practice an innovation, and 
whether right or wrong, we give him credit for his 
effort to rebuke the evil, although the young minister 
belonged to another denomination. 

To Mr. Havens, the future of even his own Meth- 
odism was an unexplored territory, and at that early 
period he could not even guess what his plain Church 
would come to in this particular. But he acted from 
his own stand point, and we honor him for it, not 
because he was always right but because he was always 
bold, and always honest. 

It should not be understood however that Mr. Havens | 
was opposed to the writing of sernions for he was not. ( 
It was the reading of them before the people that met | 
his disapproval, for in the earlier days most Methodist ' 
Preachers, as well as their people, measured sermons i 
not by their rhetoric and good English ; but by their j 
power and spirit, and the bold and eloquent manner of 
their delivery. Even notes were looked upon as being a [ 
hinderance to any manly rebuke of sin, or to any effec- | 
tive exhortation to the attainment of spiritual life. \ 

The fact however is patent to-day in every commu- j 
nity, that read sermons, as a general thing, only | 



91 



interest the scholar, the thinker — men of limited, or 
partial education always prefer the off hand talk, and 
the ready declamation, whether it is all grammatical or 
not. In the past days of ^Methodism, if a circuit rider 
had read to the people even the sermons of John Wes- 
ley himself, they would have been ready to have ship- 
ped him at the first quarterly meetincr. 

It was not in the sense of a moral reform negation, 
hovrever, that Mr. Havens opposed these innovations, 
for it was the common teaching and sentiment of most 
of his compeers. They went in for power — for present 
effectiveness, and if they did not make their congrega- 
tions cry, or shout, or resolve to quit sinning by join- 
ing the church, or coming to the mourner's bench, they 
felt that the effort vv^as comparatively a failure, and that 
they had done but little good. But the following little 
incident will show that grace never fetters itself to any 
forms : 

Eev. Augustus Eddy, who was widely known through 
Ohio, as vrell as Indiana, for many years, as a distin- 
guished and popular presiding elder, once went to one 
of his quarterly meetings on Saturday, where he found 
a meeting house full of people all waiting to hear him. 
In the pulpit, on his arrival, he found Rev. John Meek^ 
an old-time pioneer itinerant who had fought a thou- 
sand battles, but always without a single note. Seeing 
Mr. Eddy take some notes out of his beaver, he said to 
him in a whisper : 

You must not use notes here, Broiher Eddy. 
The people won^t stand it. 

But Mr. Eddy laid the notes in the Bible, and began 



92 

j: 

the service. He sang, prayed, and read his text, and i 
commenced preaching without reference to a note. In jj 
this style he went on until the congregation was fired ij 
and lifted to more than fever heat. Some were almost j| 
moved to shouting, when Mr. Eddy, lifting his notes | 
from the Bible, and turning and shaking them in the ij 
face of the preacher behind him, he said : '[ 

^^Ah ! Brother Meek, I thought you told me this con- 
gregation w^ould n^t stand notes 

^^Yes/' retorted the old pioneer, ^^but your Holy i! 
Ghost fire has set your notes in a blaze i 

Just so, Mr. Havens thought, if the preacher has the 
Holy Ghost fire, he could say anything without much 
regard to either matter or manner. 

Rev. John S. Bayless, who was once stationed in 
Indianapolis, when the Second Charge was first 
organized, in 1842, was preaching in the old Western |! 
Charge pulpit, one Sabbath afternoon, to a crowded Ij 
house, and Mr. Havens and several other ministers i 
were in the pulpit behind him. 

Mr. Bayless often used notes, and was an eloquent 'i 
and an able preacher, albeit he had a lisping delivery. \ 
On this occasion his sermon was being listened to with 
great interest, when, near the close of it, he attempted t 
to make a poetic quotation, and said, in his peculiar lisp : 

^^As the poet says — As the poet says — with his I 
arm elevated, as if he was determined to give the beau- 
tiful poetic thought; but as he could not catch it readily, 
he instinctively turned toward Mr. Havens, as if for 
relief, as he exclaimed the third time, ^^As the poet f 
says — I 



I 



93 

*^Am I a soldier of the Cross, 
A follower of the Lamb?" 

ejaculated the old presiding elder, with a sort of sarcas- 
tic sympathy. But as this old poetic interrogative was 
not what the preacher wanted, the congregation was 
generally and deeply convulsed, and amid the confusion 
Mr. Bayless took his seat. 

Mere attempts at display in the pulpit never met the 
approbation of Mr. Havens, and however highly he 
respected the preacher who made them, he was very 
apt to tell him of it, at the proper time. 

Aberrations in the pulpit were more especially under 
the eye of Mr. Havens^ guardianship, as he felt he had 
a -greater privilege to criticise in this direction than in 
any other. 

Innovations were made by the people, but these he 
did not so particularly notice, as he believed they had 
the right to make changes and though he did not 
always approve of them, he ordinarily contented him- 
self with the mere expression of his disapproval, when 
he would let the matter rest, as he considered that they 
alone were the responsible umpires. 

It was not until he had measurably retired from the 
itinerant work, that many of our most modern church 
innovations were fully inaugurated. 

Steepled Churches, promiscuous sittings, organized 
choirs, organ accompaniments, theological schools and 
a classical ministry, comprise the chief modifications of 
modern Methodism, some of which Mr. Haven^s 
doubted, at least, so far as the sin killing conquests of 
the old time fire were concerned. 



94 



He feared the spirit of the world and the fashion of 
the times would root out the old genius, the divine fire 
of revival progress, which he so well knew had always 
been the greatest honor, as well as the brightest star, 
in the coronet of Methodism. 

He admitted that there was grand worldly dignity 
in a high, tall Church steeple, and that amateur choirs 
with the aid of organs could make the multitude 
believe that there was good music in religion if noth- 
ing else, and on these accounts he gave them but little 
favor either as an experiment in religious diaramics 
or as a pretentious display in theoretic devotion. 

His day of itinerant efficiency; however, was well 
nigh past, when most of these modern improvements 
in Church devotion began to be adopted in his own 
denomination, and knowing this, he bowed, to what 
many termed the spirit of the age, with what grace he 
could, although up to his last hour he greatly preferred 
the simplicity and moral beauty of the old-fashioned 
worship. 

The. mission of Methodism as he understood it, was 
to save souls, and not merely to cater to religious for- 
malism, and therefore he advocated the use of the old 
machinery, as that which he had seen efifective in a 
thousand conflicts, and which he believed could be 
wielded by an honest, conscientious ministry, simply 
and successfully, until the world should be converted 
to Christ, and the moral power of his Church become 
universal. 

It should be remembered by our readers that Mr. 
Havens had been educated in the early Church discipline 



95 



to oppose falsehood and fiction^ pride and fashion^ and 
it should not be thought strange that his antagonistic 
spirit was wont to show itself against all sorts of inno- 
vations. What he was in his profession he aimed to 
evince in his principles, and he was ever w^illing that 
the verdict of public opinion toward him might be 
governed accordingly. 

At an old settlers^ meeting which he attended, near 
Knightstown, a few years before his death, he was 
called upon to address the people, who were greatly 
delighted with his scathing sarcasms, and acute criti- 
cisms, on what the world calls progress in the Church, 
and w^hich is set dowai as modern piety. He spoke of 
the state of the country when he came to the county of 
Rush, in the fall of 1824. He said he had seen society 
in its primitive organizations in Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Indiana, W'hen cabins were universal, and when all that 
the people wore w^as spun, wove, .and made up at home. 
He described the habits, manners, and customs of the 
early backwoodsman of the West, and contrasted them 
with those of the present age, in that style of sarcastic 
argument for w4nch he w^as always so greatly distin- 
guished. He was especially severe on the young men 
of the present day, who, he said, w^ith all their acknowl- 
edged advantages had, as he feared, less conscientious 
regard for truth and character than the awkward and 
uneducated youths, w4io never knew any other homes 
but their cabins, or any other instructors save their 
mothers. He said he had long noticed the fact that 
the young man who relied upon either his feither^s 
wealth or fame, was apt to carry down to posterity but 



96 



little evidence of either. To the female side of the 
audience the old hero also gave many severe cuts^ 
which in a younger man would have savored of an 
antecedent rejection or a broken troth, but coming 
from Father Havens they were relished as a bright 
dream of the past, the music of which was pleasant to 
their ears. He said that in the earlier days it was not 
difficult to guess at a lady^s weight, or to tell how old 
she was by her natural teeth. Women, he said, used 
to be domestic, but now they were but seldom in their 
element save when on a millinery rampage. He thought 
nothing was more beautiful on earth than a good and 
modest and virtuous woman ; but he had been frequently 
told that the finest dressed ladies of the present day 
were often the very poorest representatives of either 
innocency or virtue, " What the result v/ill be,^^ he 
remarked, of all this nineteenth century progress, I 
know not ; but I confess I have my fears that when 
such women become mothers, their children will fear 
neither God, man, nor the devil/^ 



97 



CHAPTER X. 

HIS DEVOTION TO METHODISM. 

With the heroes of Methodism^ both the faith and 
economy of the Churchy were looked upon as an inspi- 
ration^ as a new and great commission^ whose special 
object was ^' to spread scriptural holiness over all 
lands/^ 

Ignoring the emptiness of forms^ and what they 
believed to be the powerless dogma of the Apostolic 
succession, they relied chiefly and alone, upon the 
Divine rights of the Holy Spirit/^ and believing, 
that God had called them to the work, they went 
out into the itinerant field, not knowing what would 
befall them there, save that the Holy Ghost witnessed 
in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions awaited 
them.^^ 

But none of these things moved them, neither 
counted they their lives dear unto themselves, so that 
they might finish their course with joy, and the minis- 
try which they had received of the Lord Jesus, to 
testify the gospel of the grace of God/^ 

It was this heroic faith in their call, in their system, 
and in their work, which gave them their inspiration, 
and led them to the display of that self-sacrificing 
moral heroism for which so many of them were dis- 
tinguished. 

At this high fountain-head of spiritual commission 
and personal obligation, these old heroic Methodist 
9 



9S 



Preachers began their ministry ; and though deficient, 
as many of them were^ in the substantial build or 
polish^ of any systematic scholarship^ they were never- 
theless^ such workmen in the building of the Temple 
as any Church, or age, might have been proud of. 
Personal piety, and a spiritual commission, coupled 
with a zeal which ^^the Day of Pentecost would 
have honored, constituted their set-out, and without 
^' purse or scrip,^^ or even the sheep-skin parchment of 
a Bishop, they mounted their horses, or started on 
foot, as they have often been known to do, " to preach 
to the spirits in the cabins of the wilderness. 

Strangers, as most of them were to the motives of 
the world, and ignorant of its tricks and policies, 
many instances might be given, where, like the immor- 
tal Doctor Primrose, .of Vicar of Wakefield memory, 
they were wheedled out of their horses with a note or 
a song, by some hypocritical jockey, or sharper, which 
left them on foot ; which often, as a matter of self-pro- 
tection and safety, forced them to become good judges 
of horses, if they were not of tricky and over-reaching 
men. 

Their early style of worship, was as unostentatious, 
as it was simple and sincere, and as it was for the 
most part, conducted in humble cabins and at Camp 
Meetings — where the people flocked on week days, as 
well as on Sundays, to hear the gospel, without 
money and Avithout price the unpretending Circuit 
Eider was often the only public character the people 
ever saw in their neighborhoods, and therefore it was 
no marvel, that they looked upon him as one sent of 



09 



God to reprove them of sin^ of righteousness, and of 
a judgment to come/^ 

In these visits to neighborhoods of obscurity^ and 
among a thoroughly domesticated people^ the itinerant 
was not only ^^the observed of all observers/^ but he 
very frequently was claimed by them as being '^the 
best man in the world. 

The grand success which everywhere attended the 
circuit preacher's efforts of these early itinerants gave 
them a confidence in the adaptability^ as well as in the 
real divinity^ of the system which made them feel that 
they were '^God's vicegerents'' in communicating gospel 
knowledge to men ; and it was^ therefore^ but seldom 
they ever dreamed that their ministerial commission 
was behind that of even the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury'' himself. 

Why men became so attached to this life of hard- 
ships and privations, to many often appeared mysteri- 
ous. They could not see anything in it but poverty 
and worldly sacrifice^ and yet they were compelled to 
admit that the men engaged in it were gifted and elo- 
quent, as they were evidently sincere and honest. 

Neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer 
stood in their way in reaching their appointments; nor 
did swollen rivers or frozen creeks present impediments 
that they did not overcome. They were engaged in 
their Master's work, and the importance of their mis- 
sion neither admitted of delays or furnished an apology 
for any cowardly delinquency. 

Receiving their appointments to their respective 
fields, from the mouths of the Bishops at their annual 



100 



Conferences^ the order was obeyed with a promptness 
which would have reflected honor upon even a military 
edict. They had joined the conference with the full 
understanding that they were not to select their own 
fields of labor^ or to object to going wherever the Bishop 
might appoint them. They of course still retained the 
reserved privilege of locating, whenever they wished 
to do so; but this step was thought to be wrong and 
full of moral danger. 

These principles and motives led Mr. Havens, when 
but a youth, to enter upon the work of the ministry — 
and although at first it was only in the sense of a local 
preacher, he, from the very beginning, evinced a zeal 
and devotion in the cause which foreshadowed the dis- 
tinctive energy and success of all the rest of his life. 

That which troubled him most, and gave him the 
greatest uneasiness, was the conscious knowledge of his 
own incapacity for such a high and sacred calling. 
This indeed was ^Hhe man of the mountain on his 
back through all his years. But what he lacked in the 
polish of scholastic accomplishments, as far as he could 
he endeavored to make up for by his earnest zeal, his 
heroic devotion, and his life-long constancy. 

Though liberal in his^ sentiments, he was emphatic- 
ally, if not dogmatically, a Methodist. What Meth- 
odism was, was his first religious life-lesson, and it ever 
afterwards made the foundation basis of his religious 
profession. Though in after years a very independent 
thinker on many subjects, he never turned radical 
against the economy of his church. He knew his Bish- 
ops had power^ and that presiding elders had great in- 



101 



fluence^ both of which, as he believed^ were sometimes 
wielded imwisely ; but all this was no more than he ex- 
pected;, for he knew they were bat men^ and that how- 
ever well disposed they might be^ they could not always 
comprehend the full situation of affairs^ and^ therefore, 
as a matter of course must make some mistakes. 

He well knew, too, that any change of government 
which might be made would only shift the responsibil- 
ity of power without giving any assurances of greater 
safety or protection. 

Through most of the years of his itinerant life, 
there were more or less agitations on the subject of 
reforms in the government of his Church, and at 
one period the storm became so great that the very 
foundations of the edifice w^ere shaken. But through 
it all Mr. Havens stood to his post as a hero, never 
once flinching or faltering, or showing any disposition 
to throw the destinies of American Methodism into 
the hands of speculative adventurers. He had seen 
the workings of the machinery as it was, and he was 
well satisfied that no other Church economy of the 
land excelled it in efficiency, or surpassed it in the 
economical and practical workings of its agencies. It 
was not in the principles of the government so much 
as in the occasional weaknesses of the men who exe- 
cuted it, that he saw defectiveness, and this evil, he 
well knew, attached to all governments, both civil and 
ecclesiastical. His own chief aim was to build up a 
plain and substantial christian civilization, and he was 
well convinced that this could be done with the machi- 
nery of Methodism as it was, both wisely and safely, 



102 



if Methodist preachers would be honest and faithful 
toward one another, and the people continued to care 
with any degree of conscientiousness for their moral 
and future welfare. 

At one period^ Mr. Havens had w^iat was termed, in 
the common parlance of the day, a Radical Methodist 
preacher as one of his not very distant neighbors. 
Hearing that he was learned in all Church economy^ 
as well as a talented preacher, Mr. Havens, for a long 
time, was quite anxious to fall in with him that he 
might learn what *^new light the gentleman had, 
which made him so great an enemy of the ^^old ship^^ 
in which he had made his first sailings. 

Meeting him one day in a store of the village, he 
asked for and obtained an introduction to him. After 
some general conversation on the subject of Church 
affairs, the following dialogue ensued : 

Mr. H. ^^I understand, Brother T, that you were 
once a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church 

Mr. T. ^awas.^^ 

Mr. H. And a traveling preacher?'^ 
Mr. T. ^^Yes, sir, I was.^^ 

Mr. H. ^^Well, will you think me impertinent if I 
should ask you why you severed your connection with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church 

Mr. T. I left it, sir, because of its tyranny.^^ 

Mr. H. Because of its tyranny ! Why, in what 
lespect did that tyranny alfect you?^^ 

Mr. T. " I was expelled from the Conference, sir, 
unjustly and Avithout law.^^ 

Mr. H. ^^I am sorry for your misfortune, sir; but 



103 



let me ask, had you not been lecturing against the 
Bishops, the Presiding Elders, and the government of 
the Church generally 

Mr. T. " Well, yes, I had been speaking out my 
honest sentiments, which I had a right to do, and it 
was none of their business, so long as I filled all my 
appointments/^ 

Mr. H. You certainly knew that we have a rule 
forbidding any preacher from inveighing against our 
doctrines or discipline. Did you not know that you 
were violating this wise and provident rule, when you 
were delivering your public lectures on your hobby of 
reform 

Mr. T. This is a free country, as I understand it, 
and I claim the right to advocate any reforms I please, 
either in Church or State.^^ 

Mr. H. ^^Well, sir, I admire your independence, 
but I can not say as much for your discretion. You 
are now I believe, Bro. T., a member of w^hat you call 
the Methodist Protestant Church?'' 

Mr. T. ^^I am, and also a traveling preacher in that 
Church, and President of the Conference.'' 

Mr. H. ^^I acknowledge your official dignity, sir. 
But let me ask you, what would the result be if you 
were now to deliver lectures over the country in favor 
of having Bishops in your Church, and Presiding Eld- 
ers, and so on of all the rest? Would they not expel 
you from your Conference and Church ? " 

Mr. T. It is very probable, sir, they would. But 
if they did, that would not make it right; for I hold 



i 



104 

I 

it that this is a free country^ and every man has a right |j 
to his own sentiments. ^ 

Mr. H. So he has ; I admit it. But whenever he 
makes use of those sentiments to tear down and des- 
troy the moral power of his own Chnrch, he certainly 
should not complain if the sane and sober members of ' 
his Church should take him by the hand and lead him 
out as one who was no longer fit to be a member of 
their body. Such an act would have no tyranny in it, 
for it would be demanded by every law of peace and 
safety 

Here the Protestant brother evidently began, if he 
had not before, to see his mistake, and he left Mr. 
Havens without much ceremony, but not until the old 
landmark Methodist had grasped his hand, and ex- 
horted him never to forget that he was converted to 
God through the instrumentality of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

But few ministers we have known of any Church 
could lay claim to a higher integrity in his devotion to ; 
his own particular denomination than Mr. Havens; | 
still this devotion never amounted to bigotry, for he 
was both liberal and tolerant, and never turned his 
back upon any man, merely because he differed with 
him in his religious sentiments. 

Coming from the Terre Haute Conference in the fall 
of 1841, he, in company with some eight or ten of his 
brethren, stopped at a hotel, near Greencastle, where 
he found sitting at the fire side Rev. Jonathan Kid- 
well, a Universalist minister. 

It was about dark when they entered the sitting 



lOo 



room of the tavern, and Mr. Kidwell was sitting alone, 
and as he had his hat on it was difficult, as he kept his 
head down, to tell who he was. 

The venerable Universalist seemed to know he was 
surrounded by Methodist Preachers, and he evidently 
did not care much for the sudden intrusion, which had 
been made upon his company, as he sat with his hat 
slouched over his ears, as if he did not wish to be even 
recognized by them. 

Mr. Havens recognized him as soon as he entered 
the room ; but as Mr. Kidwell did not raise his head, 
or salute any one of them — so far as he was concerned 
he had the thing all his own way. 

But this did not suit Mr. Havens, as he wanted to 
show the old apostle of Univ^ersalism, that though he 
was a Methodist himself, he wished to be impartial 
toward all in the house. Walking out on the porch a 
little while, Mr. Havens came in, and walking round 
to Mr. Kidw'elPs chair, he took hold of his hat as if 
he thought it belonged to one of his traveling com- 
panions, saying, as he did so, Which one of the 
brethren is this, who is so sedate ? Turning up his 
head, Mr. Kidwell revealed his face, when Mr. Havens 
exclaimed, with apparent astonishment, ^^Why, if it 
ain^t my old friend, Brother Kidwell ! Why, how do 
you do. Brother Kidwell, I am glad tc meet w^ith you.^' 

Mr. Kidwell arose and greeted Mr. Havens with 
apparent cordiality, w^hen the two old theological 
antagonists took chairs together and entered into quite 
a social chat. 

When supper was announced, we all walked out trO 
10 



106 



the table^ and took our seats^ of course it was supposed 
that Father Havens^ as he was the oldest minister, 
would say grace. We waited^ until Father Havens 
broke the silence by saying— Brother Kidwelly will 
you please ask a blessing/^ Of course the blessing 
was asked^ both devoutly and reverently, and during 
the supper, and throughout the evening these two old 
war veterans of antagonistic faiths^ chatted as socially 
and with as much apparent pleasure, as if they had all 
their lifetimes fed from the same table. 

All the next day the old Methodist itinerant, seemed 
to feel that he had gained a victory over both bigotry' 
and himself, and he appeared to feel that he was more 
the man and the Christian, because he had treated Mr. 
Kidwell, who was so down on the doctrines of Metho- 
dist Preachers, both as a man and a brother. 



107 



CHAPTER XI. 

PREPARATION FOR THE PULPIT. 

Originality of character is usually found in the 
thoughts of the rnan^ rather than in his actions^ for it 
is the inner man which gives the true type of life^ and 
to it must we look to make any definite recognition of 
ones real animus. Even the very mode of thought has 
much to do with the character of the man, for it tells 
us whether he is impulsive, phlegmatic, acute, or sug- 
gestive, and to some extent it furnishes the personal as 
w^ell as the intellectual measure, as fairly as any other 
view. 

It does not often occur to an audience how, or 
where, or by what process of thought, or intellectual 
labor, the sermon they have just listened to, was made, 
though this or that had much to do in its production, 
as well as its character. 

To those who have never known any other mode of 
preparation for the pulpit; but with the pen, it may 
seem preposterous to even speak of any other. With 
them composition must precede every public effort, and 
they are only able to appear before an audience, when 
they have their sermon written. Extempore effort is 
above and beyond their capacity. They are pen ora- 
tors only, their manuscripts being their only strong- 
hold — for any public display, or any preaching abilities. 

The fact may not be admitted, but nevertheless it is 
true, that the practice of reading sermons can be sus- 



108 



tained with a much lower grade of talent than that of 
extempore preaching. Writing may require the better 
education^ but off-hand speaking demands the higher 
talents. To write is mechanical, and can be learned as 
one learns a trade, but extempore speaking, where it 
is effective, requires genius and oratory, as well as 
ready knowledge. The one is the work of the mechan- 
ical scholar, while the other is the evidence of the 
gifted and ready orator. 

Among all who write, and even write well, we find 
but few who can read so as to give the touches of ora- 
tory, with any marked efficiency. Orators, like poets, 
are born, but ^^writists^^ are turned out from the 
schools, like hubs from the factory. 

The practised writer may make men think, but the 
power and music of the orator, is requisite to move 
them to action. It is such facts as these, that throw 
light upon the wonderful success of Methodism. The 
preachers were extempore orators. They aimed at 
the hearts of men, rather than at their heads. The 
Jerusalem philosophy taught them that, with the 
heart, man believeth unto righteousness,^^ and they 
caught the refrain with pious avidity ; and directed by 
Wesley, they poured upon the world for a hundred 
years the grandest, because the most effective, sermons 
it has heard since the Apostolic age. 

It was not ignorance that led the Methodist minis- 
try to ignore the reading of sermons. It was their 
theology — that theology which aimed to strike down 
the sinner at a single blow. They did not start out to 
reform the world by the slow process of systematic 



109 



education, but to move it with the power of a moral ava- 
lanche. They aimed indeed to shake one world 
w^ith the thunders of another/^ and their very motto 
was to ^^cry aloud and to spare not/^ Their preach- 
ers " went everywhere preaching the word/^ Many 
heard them gladly/^ and everywhere the exclamation 
was uttered, that they who have turned the world 
upside dovrn, have come hither also/^ 

Laughed at, as many of them were, and even are 
still, they swept the Churches of the land of much of 
their formalisms, and kindled a spiritual activity and 
fire among the people of. different and distant coun- 
tries, which, it is to be hoped, they will never cease 
doing until the last trumpet ^* peals the dirge of time/^ 

It was under such spiritual impetuousness that Mr. 
Havens was first led to an acquaintance wath Method- 
ism, and having full confidence in the sterling divinity 
of his own experience, he preached the facts as he had 
learned them — told the story as he knew it in the 
moral protection of his own life, and as he had seen it 
in ten thousand cases around him. With him Christi- 
anity was no mere theory, but an order of law and 
precepts, of spirit and power, such as the world could 
find in no system of its own philosophy, and to these 
he directed both his thought and soul afresh, whenever 
he was called to preach a sermon., Xeyer having giyen 
himself, to any great extent, to the use of the pen, 
thought and reflection, and prayer to Almighty God 
for his assistance, became the fixed preparatory habits 
of his life. 

To this habit may w^e attribute that rich vein of liv- 



110 



ing, original thought^ which made him so prominent as 
a preacher^ and drew around him wherever he labored 
the best thinkers^ and even many of the best educated 
minds of the country. Mr. Havens was no " English 
Sketch Preacher/^ nor did he entertain his audiences 
with revamped sermons. With him every sermon was 
a new^ one^ and he sank or rose with the circumstances 
of the occasion^ and yet he but seldom ever made a 
failure. 

Believing^ as he did^ that he was accountable to God 
for the spirit and manner, as well as for the matter of 
his sermons, his preparatory agitations were often very 
great before going into the pulpit, and sometimes for 
many hours before he delivered his sermon, his mind 
would seem in a perfect storm of agony and excite- 
ment. In pleasant weather he would go to the woods 
with no companion but his Bible ; and in winter he has 
often been known to walk the floor of his room during 
a large part of the night before preaching one of his 
bold, spirit-stirring sermons on the Sabbath. 

The mystery with many who knew him, and who 
were fully aware of his scholastic deficiency, was to 
account for his original and profound thought, for his 
logical force and argumentative impressiveness. They 
saw that he moved out on the line of his investigations 
with a master^s power, and that it w^as but seldom he 
ever failed to give to both saint and sinner his por- 
tion in due season. 

In theological schools it is the custom to read all 
other books in order to get a clear understanding of 
the Bible, but with Mr. Havens this order was almost 



Ill 



wholly reversed. He read the Bible to know what 
w^as, or should be^ in all other books. What it taught 
was his theology; and drinking, as he did, daily at the 
fountain head of all truth, all doctrine, and all hope of 
life — temporal, spiritual, and eternal — he came before 
the people at each pulpit greeting with a fresh and 
divine commission which gave him authority to speak 
the truth, no matter whom it might hit, reprove, or 
please, totally irrespective of the pride of wealth or 
the display of dignity. 

On nearly all occasions his sermons were prepared 
and intended to rebuke all manner of sins among the 
people, and to warn them against the moral presump- 
tion of rushing on the thick bosses of Jehovah^s 
buckler.'^ If his personal ambition led him to make 
an extraordinary effort it was not with the selfish idea 
of building up himself in the esteem of his hearers — 
but it was with the higher and nobler conviction of 
showing himself a minister that needed not to be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the w^ord of truth. 

The mechanical stilts of mere human knowledge 
were never his support in his pulpit reliances. Hence, 
he never fed his congregations on the husks of human 
science, when they came before him for spiritual food, 
or to have the doctrine of the atonement explained to 
them, or when they wished to be led up in thought 
and devotion, to the higher walks of immortality 
and life. 

Though wholly an extempore preacher, Mr. Havens 
was not always ready to preach. He w^anted time, 
ordinarily, to prepare his sermon, or, at least, to get 



112 



his mind in frame^ and when this was done he was 
always ready — tliough it was not uncommon for him 
to change his text even after he had begun the services. 

On one occasion a brother minister of another church 
came to him and informed him that he had been very 
busy during the w^eek making some improvements on 
his property^ and he had only one sermon prepared for 
the Sabbath^ and wanted to know if he would not 
preach for him on Sabbath night? Mr. Havens gave 
his consent to do so, and at the proper time he reported 
himself at the brother's Church and was politely 
escorted into the pulpit. 

Presenting Mr. Havens with the bible and taking 
the hymn book himself^ the Pastor asked, in view of 
selecting suitable hymns for the sermon of the evening: 

" Mr. Havens, what will be the subject of your dis- 
course to-night?'^ 

Well, sir, I don^t know yet,'^ was the response of 
the old Methodist itinerant, " I have not exactly fixed 
on that yet,'' he added. 

The confession took the brother by surprise, for he 
had been educated in the regular line of sermon prep- 
aration, and he thought it strange that a preacher of 
such long standing as Mr. Havens should agree to 
preach for him, and then come into his pulpit w^ithout 
knowing what he was going to preach about. 

^^I want to select suitable hymns," said the minister* 

^^In that matter just suit yourself,'.' responded Mr. 
Havens. 

The hymns were sung, and the prayers were offered, 
when Mr. Havens read his text : 



113 



^^God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ.'^ 

For a full hour that assembly listened to a sermon 
as full of bold thought on the moral heroism, and self 
sacrifice of the Christian life, as perhaps they had ever 
heard in their lives. The brother said he never 
listened to a sermon with greater interest, or with 
more astonishment. ^^Itwas,^^ said he, ^^full of the 
purest thought and richest divinity, and was delivered 
with a readiness and pathos, which perfectly aston- 
ished me.^^ I thought,^^ he added, if Mr. Havens 
preaches that way without preparation how must he 
preach when he does prepare his sermon.^^ 

This good brother did not understand it. That ser- 
mon, doubtless had cost Mr. Havens more study, more 
pure mental agitation, than a dozen written sermons 
usually cost a mere sermon writer. Though he may 
have preached it even hundreds of times in his life, he 
had no outline of it, and every effort he made to 
preach it was a new one. The subject, to his mind, 
was ever like a grand temple, which he would occa- 
sionally visit, to inspect its beauty, and to learn the 
divinity of its architecture. When the spirit of his 
thought led him in this direction, and he felt the 
subject appropriate to the hour, he would enter the 
spacious gates of such a temple of truth, and walk 
down its inspiring corridors, and with his soul wrapt 
in the etherial atmosphere of the higher life, he would 
closely scan each chamber of the divine edifice, and 
thus impressed, and thus inspired, he would come 
before his congregation feeling that every truth he 



114 



preached was an inspiration^ which on the pains and 
penalties of an immutable law, they should both hear 
and obey. Though in no mechanical sense a scholar, 
Mr. Havens was most undoubtedly a profound thinker 
on all the great leading subjects of Christian the- 
ology. His mind was thoroughly disciplined to the 
practices of thought, and he nnderstood the order of 
successful argument, as if he had been an expert logi- 
cian. Of course his pulpit efforts lacked the finish of 
the scholar, as well as the profundity of the thorough 
reader, for he was not the one, nor did he ever lay 
claims to be the other. But feeling, as he always did, 
the educational misfortune of his early years, he was 
the more studious and particular in the thorough 
investigation of all such subjects, as he from time to 
time adopted as the themes of his ministerial effi- 
ciency. 

Mr. Havens was once invited to an evenings enter- 
tainment among a large number of Presbyterian min- 
isters, where as was natural the subject of pulpit prep- 
aration was extensively discussed. The conversation 
was general, and various opinions were expressed in 
regard to the best time for study, as well as the proper 
mode of preparing sermons. 

Though the oldest minister present, Mr. Havens, 
with his usual modesty on such occassions, sat and list- 
ened, and while the younger divines were all giving 
their respective experiences in regard to the matter, he 
was running back on the vangs of his memory, over 
the vast fields of his life-toil, where in cabins and 
school houses, court houses and log churches, he had 



115 



met and addressed so many thousands of the old and 
pioneer citizens of the West. But still he listened 
with respectful reverence to what he termed ^^the 
more learned theories of these theological scholars/^ 
The most of them he found placed great reliance 
on a good supply of well w^ritten sermons. Noticing 
this fact^ when one of the company turned to him for 
his views^ and asked what he thought of the matter^ 
he facetiously remarked : 

I was just thinkings Brethren^ w^hat the result 
would be if one of you was going to assist one of your 
brethren at a Communion Meeting, and was to lose 
your written sermon by the w^ay/^ What w^ould you 
do in such a dilemma he asked. ^^That is a contin- 
gency, Mr. Havens/^ replied one of them, which I 
presume but seldom ever happens. ^^Well, but it 
does happen/^ responded a^nother, with a laugh, as I 
can testify from my own experience. About a year 
ago,^^ said he, ^^I rode twenty miles over to an 
adjoining Presbytery to get one of its members to 
come and spend a Sabbath with me. I succeeded in 
my mission, and obtained a good brother wdio is said 
to be a fine scholar to ride over with me. But on our 
arrival w-e found the little satchel of my companion, 
in which he had his sermons was non est^ and the 
result was the next day I had to preach twice myself.'^ 
Of course tlie laugh was against an implicit reli- 
ance on written sermons, and more particularly so 
when one is going from home. 



116 



CHAPTER XII. 

STYLE OF HIS PREACHING. 

The fact that Mr. Havens ranked among the ablest 
and foremost preachers in the West, to many may- 
seem anomalous, particularly when it is admitted that 
he was neither a scholar nor even a general reader. 
But of him, more especially than of any other minis- 
ter of Indiana, it may be said that he was a man of 
one thought, of one purpose, of one book. The holy 
Bible was his vade mecum, his life-long companion, 
which not only commanded his devotion and absorbed 
his thoughts, but it furnished the basis of his religion, 
the circumference of his philosophy, and the obliga- 
tions of his lifelong labors. To ^^this book of books'^ 
he made all his appeals. It was his souvenir in all the 
sacred memories of the past, and whether in doubt or 
trial, through all of life's vicissitudes, this inspired 
volume, ^^the book of the ages,'' was his only supreme 
and infallible reliance. 

Though possessing a mind which was largely and 
naturally skeptical, Mr. Havens never suffered his 
thoughts for a moment to doubt either the authenticity 
or credibility of this great book. With the immortal 
Bard of Avon, Sir William Shakspeare, Mr. Havens 
made his best and strongest quotations from its words 
of wonder, and gathered also the theory of his moral 
ethics from its holy teachings. 

Thus drinking from the fountain head, it was not 



117 



necessary that he should taste of any other waters, for 
with his inner soul filled with the blessings of this 
higher inspiration, he scarcely had need of any of the 
lighter sprinklings, to either give zest to his knowledge 
or zeal to his mission. 

Like most of the early Methodist preachers, Mr. 
Havens aimed chiefly at the conversion of sinners, and 
to this end he drove his forces, often with a speed and 
power, which not unfrequently moved his whole con- 
gregation. His texts themselves were often startling, 
and he generally selected them in view of striking the 
truth home upon the hearts of his audiences, for he 
had but little faith in catching men with straws,^^ and 
therefore he charged upon them often with an impetu- 
ous storm of fiery eloquence, which made his hearers 
tremble as if their impending fate was just before them. 

It was never the purpose of his sermons to merely 
entertain an audience. This policy he thought might 
suit a tragedian, but not a gospel minister. He preached 
as he believed, because he was sent, and relying for his 
effectiveness wholly upon the gift- and power of the 
Holy Ghost, he entered the pulpit somewhat like a 
general goes into battle, and always with the resolve, if 
within his power, to have the victory. 

His best efforts were usually made under the pressure 
of excitement, when the people were gathered by thou- 
sands to hear him, and when the circumstances of the 
occasion seemed to demand it. On such occasions his 
nervous organism was strung up to its highest tension, 
and he became ^' a hero on the battle-field,^^ no matter 
how fierce was the strife. Earnestness and zeal, sin- 



118 



cerity and high resolve, marked and distinguislied his 
spirit; while in language^and utterance, look and ges- 
ture, he so far became the orator, that it was but seldom 
his congregations ever grew weary of his effort. 

Many pulpit orators are either pompous or ornate, 
but Mr. Havens was never the one or the other, for it 
was not in the dignity of his personnel, or in the 
flowery elements of his language, that he ever aimed 
to excel. Indeed, he disdained to even look in these 
directions, for his high sense of ministerial obligations, 
utterly forbid any display of vanity in the pulpit, and 
his evident sincerity and sterling Christian honesty 
always kept him in another sphere. 

Ever aiming at execution in his holy office, and 
chiefly anxious to convert men, and to reform, the 
malignant spirit of the age, he mostly forgot himself 
in his preaching, and seemed not even to care, whether 
his efforts would lead on to his personal fortunes or 
not. Indeed, but few ministers we have ever known 
excelled him in this regard. It was this fearless moral 
independence, doubtless, that gave him such promi- 
nence, as well as such great success. 

Earnest in thought, as he was fervent and deter- 
mined in spirit, he gave utterance to both, in language 
that was expressive, and in such a style, as always 
impressed his audiences and held them with the chain 
of his power. 

It is a well known fact in all oratorical eiforts, that 
every speaker has his own particular forte, which con- 
stitutes his chief strength, and opens his way to the 
minds and hearts of his audiences, as with the power 



119 



of a mysterious divinity. This forte Mr. Havens pos- 
sessed in a peculiar manner^ though he never appeared 
to be conscious of it^ only in the aims and purposes of 
his holy calling. 

But few ministers ever talked to his congregations 
in plainer language than he did. This in fact^ was his 
style of address^ and vdiether in the pulpit or out of 
it he always scorned to be Janus-faced. He loved the 
direct style^ the frank expression^ the honest and 
determined word. Such manner of utterances belonged 
peculiarly to the genius of his own character^ and if he 
ever prided himself in anything connected with his 
pulpit performances, it was the fact that he was never 
afraid to preach the truth to any congregation^ or even 
to tell any man of his sins and meanness even to his 
teeth. 

Though thus fearless of men^ but few ministers we 
have known were more fearful of God. He believed 
most sincerely in the great Omnipotence^ and as it was 
by such authority and commission^ he had entered the 
ministry^ he never lost sight of his high responsibility. 
Nothing could lead him to forget that he was one of 
God^s moral almoners/ and through all the years of his 
official life, we never heard of any one accusing him of 
daubing with untempored mortar. 

AYhat he preached, he gleaned from the word of 
God^ and as he knew the source of his doctrines^ he 
never hesitated to make them known in their eternal 
richness, as well as in the terrible fearfulness of their 
present and eternal penalties. What the bible says of 
both Heaven and hell, Mr. Havens believed most 



120 



implicitly, and therefore he often gave the allurements 
of the one, and depicted the horrid agonies of the 
other, with all the nervous and eloquent language of 
his soul, while listening thousands shook before him 
under the fearful power of the word. 

In conversation with Hon. Charles H. Test a few 
days since, he spoke of Mr. Havens as follows: "The 
first time I ever heard Rev. James Havens preach, was 
at a camp meeting a short distance below Connersville.^^ 
"I was,^' said he, "over at Connersville attending 
court, and remaining over Sabbath I was induced to 
attend the camp meeting. The congregation was large, 
numbering several thousand, and Mr. Havens, I found, 
was the preacher for the popular hour. I took my seat 
as near the stand as I could get it, and after singing 
and prayer, the preacher read his text in a distinct but 
husky voice, and began to preach. I soon became 
impressed that he was no ordinary speaker or orator . 
for soon he had the people interested in his subject, and 
for an hour or more he held the vast assembly as if 
they were enchanted. I thought I never heard a finer 
sermon from the lips of any man than Mr. Havens 
gave us that day. It was clear and terse, eloquent and 
able, and under its delivery the people sat during the 
long hour with an extatic pleasure such as I have but 
seldom ever witnessed.^^ 

It was the earnestness of Mr. Havens^ preaching^ 
perhaps, more than any other distinct feature, which 
gave it its resistless and eloquent force. He never 
trifled with eternal interests, when he was in the pul- 
pit, for there he felt he was an officer standing between 



121 

God and man, and he well knew that if he proved 
recreant to the truth — 

'^The traitor's doom would be his only future trust." 

Some of our readers may be ready to ask whether 
Mr. Havens^ style of preaching was of the instructive 
cast? The question^ we admits is a natuntl one^ for we 
are well aware that many have the impression that the 
impulsive extempore preacher does not teach — that he 
only excites^ and therefore is limited in his influence to 
only a single class. 

That some off-hand and excitable preachers may be 
thus limited is probable^ but Mr. Havens was not of 
any such class. His preaching comprehended the divin- 
ity of truth^ the genuine power of religion^ the genius 
of eloquence^ as well as the earnestness of soul of a 
warm-hearted and zealous o:osnel minister. 

Trne^ he dealt but sparingly in speculative theology^ 
or in metaphysical phylosophy. Gospel facts and 
Christian morals^ in connection with the evangelical 
experience and hopes of a religious life^ made up the 
chief sum of his pulpit themes, and these he laid be- 
fore his congregations with such plain and earnest 
force that they could not well fail to feel and acknowl- 
edge their true character and power. 

Preaching through many of his years to very large 
assemblies of peojile of all religious faiths, and of 
every shade of morals, many of his sermons were espe- 
cially designed for the outside world, instead of the 
Church. On this account they were often of that bold 
character which some would term rough. But the 
true secret of the matter was they were only plain. 
10 



122 



They contained the truth, and doubtless in most in- 
stances went in the right direction. It is possible for 
some congregations to listen to what is called preach- 
ing — and preaching which is well paid for too — that 
never touches the worst sinners among them — the rich, 
the fashionable, and the licentious. 

It may be said of Mr. Havens, however, that no 
man ever had a dollar big enough to buy him, or any 
assumed human dignity that could awe him into silence. 
He had seen bears and panthers, and even the native 
and fiery red man, in his youth, and there was no pale 
face that could make him wince or fall back from his 
high responsibilities. It was this decision of character, 
this positive make up of his ministerial pretensions, 
which constituted him the giant among men, and the 
hero among gospel ministers. He was not afraid to 
say what he ought to, and as he was not given to flat- 
tery even among his friends, he never held back the 
truth even for their accommodation. In plain words, 
Mr. Havens was an honest man. But that all his ser- 
mons were clear and graphic, orthodox and prudent, it 
might not be safe to affirm. Of course he meant them 
all well, yet there were times and circumstances through 
which he was called to pass, that transcended his edu- 
cation and abilities, and if he showed confusion of 
thought or trepidation of mind at any time, it was 
because the sudden pressure of circumstances had not 
given him time for proper reflection. On such occa- 
sions he was exceedingly distrustful even of himself, 
and apparently as unwilling to confide in his own 
iudgment as in that of any other man. 



123 



In almost every profession of life there are vieissi-- 
tudes of history where men are not themselves^ where 
some foreign genius seems to possess them^ and under 
such confused and monopolizing control the real animus 
of the man is for a brief period obscured^ if it is not 
wholly perverted. With Mr. Havens, however^ such 
freaks of character but seldom occurred, and when 
they did^ he seemed to recognize their presence in 
himself as readily as he did or would in any other 
person. It was this knowledge of his own weakness 
that led him to the exercise of such leniency toward 
others, and often in his public services^ while he would 
be most scathingly severe on the derelictions of trans- 
gressorsj he would earnestly plead that charity should 
be extended toward them, and that as far as possible 
every one should lend a hand to help them up again. 

Hon, James Rariden^ for many years a Representa- 
tive in Congress from the ^^old Burnt District of 
Indiana, whose residence was at Centreville, in Wayne 
County, was a great admirer and strong friend of Mr. 
Havens. They had met first when both of them were 
young in their respective professions, one a lawyer and 
the other a preacher, but both of them, in the common 
language of the day, styled circuit riders.^^ The law- 
yer carried Blackstone and the preacher John Wesley 
in his saddle-bags, and as they were very much alike 
in many things their congenial associations were often 
as free and unrestrained as if they had grown up on 
the same fire-stones. Raridan was not a professor of 
religion, however, and indeed among many it was 
thought he had but little faith in anything of the sort. 



12 i 



But Mrs. Earidan being a Methodist^ Mr. Havens was 
often their guest^ where he met her husband, the Con- 
gressman^ who always greeted him in the most familiar 
manner. 

At one of Mr. Havens^ Quarterly meetings in 
Centreville^ he preached on Sunday morning, one of I 
the severest and most scathing sermons against infi- 
delity he was ever knovrn to utter. Quite a number 
of the skeptical citizens of the place were present, and •. 
prominent among them was Mr. Raridan. They j 
all sat and listened with the utmost reverence^ as they 
knew " Old Sorrel/^ as thousands called Mr. Havens^ 
had the floor. Many furtive glances were made by 
the congregation at these supposed infidel gentlemen, 
as Mr. Havens poured the thunders of Sinai around 
their heads, and held up to them the milder splendors y 
of the Xew Testament philosphy. What, and all he I 
said, on that occasion, of course is lost, both in its mat- 
ter and manner, but like the terrific storm which has \ 
swept in its wdldness through the giant oaks of the for- j 
est, the track of its f30tsteps were everywhere visible. \ 
When the meeting was over, Mr. Havens was invi- ' 
ted to dine with his old friend Mr. Earidan. While j 
at the table there was not an allusion to the sermon. 
All was pleasant and marked with the kindest hospi- I 
tality, and the old Presiding Elder almost began to | 
think he had made a clear convert of the eccentric and I 
talented Congressman. 

The company rose from the table, and took seats in 
the parlor, when Mr. Earidan came in with his pipes 



125 



and tobacco for himself and distinguished guest, to 
have their favorite recherche Indian desert. 

The pipes filled with the best old Virginia fine 
stub and twist and lit, the two old ^' Ex-Circuit 
Riders/^ sat puffing out their graceful curls of rolling 
smoke, as if there was not a single string of discord 
between them. Mr. Raridan felt that Old Sorrel 
w^as ^^one^^ ahead of him in the matter of the sermon 
he had just preached, and he w^as itching to get even 
w^ith him. 

Do you pretend to believe, Brother Havens,'^ Mr. 
Raridan solemnly asked, " that Jonah swallowed the 
whale 

Mr. Havens not noticing the catch, very promptly 
responded : 

" Yes, I certainly do.'^ 

" "Well, well,^^ said Raridan, laughing at the good 
success of his humor. " I don^t know which was the 
biggest fool Jonah or the vvliale. You tell me that 
Jonah swallowed the whale — 

^^Xo, Raridan I didn't,"' said the Presiding Elder. 
Yes, yes, you said you believed he did, which is 
the same thing,'' responded the facetious Congress- 
man. 

Mr. Havens, seeing that his humorous friend had 
taken advantage of his absent-mindedness, cast a leer- 
ing glance at him and remarked: Raridan, I'm 
afraid the Devil will get you yet." 

The little joke evidently gave Mr. Raridan the vic- 
tory, for he used to tell it with fresh gusto, on all 
possible occasions. 



TIG 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHARACTER AS A REVIVALIST. 

The distinctive mission of Christianity is fully exem- 
plified only where men are led to acknowledge the 
majesty of moral laws and where their lives are made 
to strictly conform to it. 

That such an order of society can be accomplished 
by the mere process of catachetical teaching has 
been doubted by many^ whose faith and experience 
have taught them^ that spiritual life is only enjoyed by 
such as are /^born again/^ 

Having discarded the old doctrine of a legitimately 
descended Priesthood/^ and of baptismal regenera- 
tion^' in the impartation of spiritual life, they became 
ardent zealots of revival reforms. On this faith, they 
moved out on the works of the enemy, and among the 
masses of the people, with a power which has often 
demonstrated that the day of Pentecost might ^be 
repeated as long as time might last. 

It was this spiritual theory, in connection with the 
great doctrine of Martin Luther, of Salvation by 
faith,^' which formed the outline and revival mission 
of Methodism, and which for more than a century has 
been known in England and America, as the Wesleyan 
reformation. 

The spiritual results of this wonderful mission have 
largely silenced the dogmatic criticisms of the older 
churches, and in many instances have, indirectly at 



127 



least, wrought a reform among those who even denied 
their divine legitimacy. 

It was not what Methodism was that made it popu- 
lar, but what it did, and what it was still doing. The 
world did not care so much for its theory as they did 
for its practical reforms and its self-sacrificing, execu- 
tive enterprises. They saw there was life in it — that it 
stopped not on the order of its going, but went at 
once/^ to any country, to any people, " without money 
and without price.^^ ]S"o order was able to resist its 
force, and the grand result has been that its working 
boundaries have been universally unlimited. 

Here in the West particularly this wonderful religi- 
ous enterprise seemed to find its natural element, and 
its growth became commensurate with the advance of 
society. Its popular tide often ran so high that even 
ministers were not so much esteemed for their intelli- 
gence and scholarship as they were for their zeal and 
the revival power of their ministry. The burning fires 
of revival energy, transcended all other accomplish- 
ments; and even men of letters, whose ability was only 
to teach, often felt, in these great religious awakenings, 
that they were only mere children of the Kingdom. 

It has often been reported that this work was fanat- 
ical and temporary ; that its subjects were made up 
only of the i^rnorant and lower classes. If this had 
been true, it would certainlv have been the hio^her com- 
pliment ; for, that the poor have the Gospel preached 
unto them, is one of the very best* evidences both of 
its divinity and legitimacy. 

The fact that genuine revivals are essential to the 



life of the church, is ultimately the experience of every 
people. Methodism learned this in the beginning, yet in 
some of her localities, of late years, the long absence of 
revivals, and the chilling monotony of icy formations, 
have so far enfeebled her pretensions and dwarfed her 
evangelism, that her lights have become dim, and her 
simple forms of worship have grown to be but the 
shadow of their shade. 

It is not the parity of theology, as has been fully 
tested, that keeps up the Church, any more than the 
wealth and social status of its members. Christian 
life can not fatten upon empty theories, or on any sort 
of mere pompous displays. Its vitality is of the higher 
growth, and flourishes only when it faithfully carries 
the spirit of the Master. AVhat he was, in the mild 
tenderness of his ministry, the Church itself must be 
in its spirit, if it will live. Therefore, it becomes neces- 
sary that revivals shall be constant in their working 
economy, as simplicity and fellowship always are in 
their genuine demonstrations. 

These, and similar sentiments, were well vindicated 
in the life and ministry of Mr. Havens. Indeed, he 
began his experience with them, as they belonged to 
the very genius of that Methodist element in which he 
was converted. 

Fully satisfied, as he always was, that God was the 
author of his commission, he inferred that what had 
been done for him, would be done for others. Conse- 
quently, when he entered upon the ministry it was not 
with the view of becoming a great man himself, but 
the hope of making great and good men of others. 



129 



This, in fact, was the old primitive idea among 
Methodists everywhere, and, as we have already inti- 
mated, the people were ready to doubt' the sterling 
piety of any preacher, no matter how able he might 
be, if he had no revivals under his ministry. This 
distinguishing feature in the work became the mark of 
goodness, as well as the measure of ministerial great- 
ness. So common, therefore, did revivals become 
throughout the boundaries of Methodism, that the 
increase of hundreds in a single circuit was only looked 
upon as an ordinary circumstance. Such, indeed, 
was the mighty growth of the work, that circuits were 
multiplied annually, and ministerial additions to the 
annual Conferences called out young men from shops, 
and farms, and schools, and colleges by scores and 
hundreds. 

These facts and circumstances may furnish some idea 
of the times in which Mr. Havens served in the public 
ministry, and may also give some conceptions of the 
zeal and fire which made him so prominent a leader 
among such a host of evangelical revivalists. 

Being naturally independent and fearless as a man, 
he only needed the graces of Christianity to constitute 
him a hero in any such excitements, and the storm of 
revivals soon became his most favorable element ; and 
when he was in the midst of them neither the confusion 
of the crowd, nor the roar of the troubled waters, ever, 
for a moment, disconcerted him. On such occasions he 
was " himself again, and the fervent eloquence of his 
exhortations fell upon the listening crowds before him, 
like the thunders of an Apostle upon the gathered 
12 



130 



multitudes of the ancient Israel. At these times but 
few men excelled him, for he was as bold and fearless 
as he was sublime and effective. 

Standing in the pulpit^ or looking from the altar 
upon his congregations^ his deeply exercised spirit 
caught the inspiration of every passing breeze ; and 
watching the work with a guardianship as vigilant as 
it was sensitive and protective^ he always aimed to rule 
it in its order, and to guide it in its extension and con- 
tinuance, as if the fortunes of e^en his own destiny de- 
pended upon the grand results. 

On such occasions he usually had but little patience 
with objectors and critics, and if any interloper attempt- 
ed to create a disturbance, he was driven from his posi- 
tion with as little respect and ceremony as the case 
would honorably admit of. 

In a revival of very great power, which occurred in 
the bounds of one of his old circuits, Mr. Havens 
learned that a brother minister of another church had 
made some disparaging remarks of the work, and was 
further using his influence to keep some away from the 
meeting, and he became at once exceedingly indignant. 
To be wounded in the house of his friends, was to him 
always a sore trial, and this act in one from whom he 
had expected better things, aroused him as the lion is 
stirred when the hand of the stranger touches her 
young. Without giving any names, he mentioned the 
matter publicly, and remarked that he would give fair 
notice that all such parties might have a clear under- 
standing of the conflict which was going on, and he 
then added : " If they want peace they can have it on 



131 



peaceable terms ; but if they "want war^ they can have 
it to the knife I*^ The bold and positive declaration^ as 
all fully understood^ vas not intended to be literally 
construed^ yet it was a proclamation of war^ after all^ if 
they wanted it. - - . 

Mr. Havens understood the points of church etivquette 
as well as the responsibility of a minister of the Gospel^ 
and nothing excited his indignation sooner, or to a 
greater extent, than the opposition of ministers of 
other churches when he had a revival on hand. 

It was then, more than at any other time, that he 
showed himself a hero, fearless of the face or frowns of 
any foe. Xothing could make him covs'er or yield, on 
such occasions, to either the spirit or power of wrong. 
He felt that he was about his Master^s work, and such 
was his impetuous spirit, that he would have maintained 
his ground, like Peter of old, even to the smiting off an 
ear of his foe. 

In one of these revivals, where the ecstatic enjoy- 
ment ran high, and where a great many of the mem- 
bers were rejoicing on the largest Methodist scale, there 
was a female of doubtful brains, as well as virtue, who 
gave great umbrage to the congregation by her contin- 
ual shouting. But few had any faith in her, and yet, 
none, even of her own sex, dared to warn her to desist 
in her excessive genuflexions. Mr. Havens was spoken, 
to on the subject, and he vratched her for some time^ 
until he became convinced that the woman was not 
sincere, when he approached her and said, in rather a 
low whisper : 

^^I think, my sister, you are wasting your ammuni- 



132 I 

tion here in this meeting. I learn there is not a woman j 
in the house who has any confidence in you, and I 
think you will make a better reputation by taking your j 
seat and behaving yourself/^ ' 

This advice, though seemingly rude and severe, had j 
the desired effect, for the woman immediately took her -; 
seat and gave no more trouble during the meeting. f 

In the same revival meeting one of the wickedest j 
men in the county came forward to ask an interest in 
the prayers of the church, and after being some time on i 
his knees he requested that Mr. Havens should come | 
and pray for him, especially. Of course he went, and ^ 
kneeling down beside the wife-whipper, drunkard and | 
bully, whom he had known for years as one of the most !| 
high-handed sinners of the country, he began to pray j! 
with great earnestness for his conversion. But he first |f 
told the Lord who the professed penitent was. This 
man, O Lord, has been one of the wickedest of men. I 
He has been a drunkard, a swearer, a Sabbath-breaker, 
and a terror to the neighborhood in which he lives. 
He has whipped his wife, and often driven her and her 
children from their home. We know, O Lord, that 
he has brought upon himself and his household misery 
and wretchedness, and almost the horrors of hell itself. 
If thou canst pardon him. Lord, grant him this boon 
to-night.^^ While Mr. Havens was praying, many of 
his friends trembled, for fear his seeming penitent 
might become angry and make one of his accustomed 
" splurges at him. But the devout and honest old 
Presiding Elder had no such fears, for he well knew that 
the guilty are always cowards, and, under the circum- 
stances, he was prepared for any emergency. 



133 



It is sad to relate^ that although this old penitent 
made a profession of religion and joined the church, at 
that revival, and clung to his temperate integrity for 
some eight or nine months, he at last fell, and in a 
drunken attack which he subsequently made upon his 
poor wife, one of his daughters struck him with an axe, 
which ended his life. 

To clear up the moral forests of the great West de- 
manded much of that sort of heroic faith for which Mr. 
Havens was so especially distinguished^ and which he 
so often displayed to the sudden terror of even the 
wickedest of men, A milder spirit would have totally 
failed in carrying, as he frequently did, the w^ar into 
the camp of the enemy. As an ambassador of the 
Gospel of peace, he felt that he should establish peace 
everywhere, even if he sometimes had to conquer it ; 
which, indeed, he not unfrequently had to do at the 
expense of a seeming contradiction of the doctrine of 
non-resistance. Well versed, as he was, in the knowl- 
edge of human nature, he became aware of the fact that 
often desperate remedies had to be adopted with des- 
perate men, and in view of their salvation he sometimes 
struck out on a line of action to accomplish his purpose 
which often made others around him turn pale with 
fear. He did not hesitate at any time to tell wicked 
men what he thought of them ; and when it came in 
his way, either publicly or privately, he made known 
to them the consequences of their immoral course of 
life, with a plainness of speech that frequently com- 
pletely cowed them, and led them to confess their 
wickedness. 



134 



But few men in any profession had more nerve than 
Mr. Havens, and this courage appeared to be natural 
with him. Though simple as a child in the tenderness 
of his affection, he was, when aroused by the spirit- 
stirring power of a revival, or the fiercer storm of oppo- 
sition to his church or religion, much more the lion 
than he was the lamb. He appeared, indeed, to be set 
for the defence of the Gospel with an ardor as firm as it 
was decisive, and, therefore, he would stand his ground 
unflinchingly until he felt that he had the victory. 

His energetic, and often eloquent exhortative talents^ 
gave him prominence in revival scenes, as they also 
made him well known to the multitude. It was re- 
markable, too, that as severe as he sometimes was upon 
them, the few only uttered their maledictions upon his 
head, while the great majority looked upon him as 
being a moral hero, as well as a true minister and an 
honest man. They saw that he was no panderer to the 
prejudices of wicked men, and that he was at no time 
willing to compromise either his own character or posi- 
tion in order to preserve his worldly popularity with 
any class, however high or low. 

The grand results of this heroic spirit can never be 
written by mortal pen, for what he was, and what he 
did, as a divinely commissioned instrument in the 
great revivals of the nineteenth century, while it has 
given to his fame the eclat of a high moral heroism, can 
neither be counted nor measured. 

Thousands who have preceded him to the spirit-land 
were warned by his timely exhortations, and stirred to 
duty by his thundering appeals ; and if they did not in 



135 



this life, they ^Yill in the next^ honor him as their 
Spiritual Father. Yrith thousands still living he 
prayed when they were drinking the wormwood and 
gall of repentance ; and Vvdien their faith laid hold of 
the promisej no heart rejoiced more than his. With 
him such scenes constituted his highest triumphs, as 
they were the grand objective points at which he aimed 
through all his ministry. 

Down to the latest period of his active labors the 
war cry of revival power always moved his soul as with, 
electric inspiration, and though, feeling that he was 
growing feeble with his accumulating years, he yet, 
like a hero, as he was, still panted for the active fields 
of battle. 



136 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MINISTERIAL SUCCESS. 

To teach truth and to advocate virtue^ to officiate as 
a circuit preacher and unfold the moral economy of 
the Methodist Discipline, a half century ago in the 
West, did not require the knowledge of letters or the 
educational polish of the present times. Then, the 
people had no grand churches for pious worship, or 
even fine clothes for any personal display. Both in 
manners and spirit they were plain, simple, and honesty 
and in their intellectual capacities were not so apt to 
demur against blunders in grammar, or defects in 
rhetoric, as in these days, with their spiritual advisers. 

Wherever they made any profession of religion, no 
matter what might be the character of their theology^ 
that profession was understood as having direct refer- 
ence to right and wrong ; and therefore^ in their inves- 
tigations they looked more to the goodness of the man 
who preached to them, and to the spirit and revival 
zeal he exhibited, than they did to any literary qualifi- 
cations he might possess. 

This simplicity of manners, and want of education 
among the early settlers of the West, made them prac- 
tical rather than speculative, and though usually easy 
of access they were not readily moved by either the wit 
of learning or the arguments of philosophy, and there- 
fore they commonly failed to see the point of the one 
or to appreciate the conclusions of the other. Their 
Gospel food was the spirit and pith of religion, which 



137 



they understood to be that spiritual life and power 
which not only reformed men but made them happy. 
They had learned that religion was an ecstacy^ as well 
as a moralizing agency^ through which the humble and 
obedient were prepared for the trials of the present life 
and for the rewards of the eternal future, and they were 
not disposed to listen to the dry details of scholastic 
lectures, or to the monotony of any philosophic discus- 
sions. Their mental positions were somewhat normal 
on most all theological subjects, and therefore the 
preacher who gained their confidence and fed them 
with Gospel food, had to be careful of his dress as well 
as of his address. They cared but little for dead lan- 
guages, and even but little for living ones. Good 
grammar might be violated without let or hindrance, 
but in no event would they shovv^ much favor where the 
preacher either read his sermons or minced and mouth- 
ed them with any seeming pretensions. They felt that 
they had been too well raised to feed on husks, or to 
be directed in the way to heaven by any sort of a 
pedantic coxcomb. 

Under such circumstances of society, what is called 
an educated ministry would have failed, not only of 
success, but they would not have commanded even the 
commonest attention of the multitude. 

In saying these things we do not wish to be under- 
stood as admitting that the ministry of those early 
times was an ignorant one, for this was not the fact 
as was well demonstrated in the success of their work, 
and in the bold and successful expositions of all sorts 
of heretical ideas. The fact that Mr. Havens was not 



138 



a scholar did not imply that he was an uneducated 
minister. Not at all ; for he was thoroughly educated 
in all the practical workiDo;s of riie ministry of his day. 
He had studied^ and understood well the moral wants 
of the people ; and^ as he had made himself master of 
the scriptural theory of religion, he knew well wha^ 
his congregations needed. This he could give them in 
plain English, and in such order aud argument zis tliey 
could and did understand. He felt that he was in the 
ministry to preach Christ, not himself, and therefore to 
do good was the great specific purpose, as he always 
viewed it, of his holy calling. 

Though exceedingly fearful, as he ever was, of his own 
poor abilities to do justice to the great themes and doc- 
trinal precepts of the Gospel, he nevertheless flinched 
not before the majesty of his duties, but heroically took 
them up according to the best of his abilities. Defect- 
ive, as he felt that he was, in the knowledge of the 
sciences and in any eminent scholarship, he well knew 
that the simple Gospel was his special field of thought, 
and though he read it not in its original tongue, he had 
gathered its spirit and moral doctrines from the idiom 
of his own vernacular ; and, with the vim and zeal of 
an implicit decision, he bore them to the people in such 
figures of speech, and with such spiritual power, as 
always proved successful 

Indeed, but few public speakers ever knew better 
than the old heroic itinerant heroes of the early times, 
how to touch the audiences who came to hear them. 
They well understood the native genius of the people, 
and when assembled for worship they knew that their 



189 



devotions had to be led by their own spirit and voice, 
as vrell as by tlie appropriateness of their subject and 
the style of tiieir argument^ and therefore their custom 
always \^;as to look vrell to their ov\'n spiritual condi- 
tions^ if they wished to move the people. 

Of course, many in those days were not general read- 
ers ; but then they Avere often good thinkers as well as 
cute critics, and if a preacher did not steer straight in 
his arguments and doctrines, they could play the dog- 
matic on him with as much severity and with as great 
decision as if they were masters. 

Congregations frerpiently found fault then, as they 
do now^ with their preachers, but the style of objections 
was altogether different from the present day. Fash- 
ions, among many, were considered terrible evils, and 
they would often condemn their preacher for reaching 
his hair, wearing whiskers, sporting gloves, or even for 
strutting in a double-breasted coat, as one and all of 
these indulgencies were considered to be following the 
vain pomp of the world ; and many a good and talented 
preacher, who had been brought up somewhere in more 
advanced society, found when he went on to a circuit 
that he had to lay aside every weight and the sin 
which so easily beset him'' in any of these directions, 
or else he would more than likely be driven from his 
circuit. 

As Mr. Havens was one of the people, himself, and 
as he had all his life been used to the plainest garbs, as 
well as the plainest manners, temptation to dress, and 
the variety of personal display, never troubled him. 
He was satisfied with his woolsey-linsey suit, and as 



140 



he always made a clean shave of it, in the whisker line, 
he was ever in conformity with the usages of the day. 

One of his colleagues, however, Rev. Henry B. Bas- 
com, was his antipodes in dress in -every respect. 
Though as poor as Mr. Havens, Bascom was naturally 
a prince in his manners, and, as his clothes were gen- 
erally given to him, he always dressed in the most 
fashionable style cf the dav. 

Many used to come to Mr. Havens and ask him if 
he did not think Bascom proud ? But as he greatly 
admired and loved the young and gifted orator, he was 
not disposed to condemn him, or to hear him condemn- 
ed, merely for the clothes he had on ; and time and 
again he sent fault-finders of this character away from 
his presence with a flea in their ears because he 
well knew that while Bascom was independent in spirit, 
he was one of the most humble and honorable among 
his brethren. 

In those primitive times the tide of success in Gos- 
pel labors depended greatly on the popularity of the 
preacher ; and yet, while Mr. Havens understood this 
fact, he always scorned to either pander to the ignorant 
prejudices of the people, or to bow in sycophancy to 
any of their arbitrary whims. He, too, had the inde- 
pendence of Bascom, and they both, alike, found that 
the attribute was one that could only be maintained at 
the expense of many a conflict. From the field of strife, 
Bascom was disposed to retire ; but Mr. Havens was 
generally ready to fight it out, if he was attacked, on 
any line the enemy might choose. His independence 
of spirit, he well knew, only had reference to men like 



141 



himself, and he was not disposed to be ruled anywhere, 
or at any time^ by either the captious or the imperti- 
nent. 

Having once taken his positions^ he maintained them, 
especially when he was confident that his aims were 
pure, and that his cause was right. When such cir- 
cumstances ruled him, few men surpassed him in heroic 
virtues or firmness, and a still less number ever morti- 
fied him with defeat. Devotion to principle appeared 
to always give him the courage of inspiration, and he 
would enter the area of conflict certain of the victory. 

Though out of the usual line of his ministerial duties, 
he once attempted to play the part of a la^\^^er in the 
prosecution of one of the " baser sort of men, who had 
been disturbing his Camp-meeting. The fellow had 
employed a lawyer to defend him, and on this account 
Mr. Havens assumed, for the time being, the duties of 
prosecutor in the case. The culprit being guilty, his 
counsel was driven to the extremes of legal defence in 
maintaining his case. The lawyer gave several points 
of law^, to which Mr. Havens demurred, and he even 
denied the autliority altogether. The struggle was 
somewhat protracted, but was finally closed with a 
pretty heavy fine on the violator of the laws of the 
State. 

The next day the lawyer approached Mr. Havens, 
and wanted to know where he had studied law ? 

"Why, sir,^^ he responded, "I do not know that I 
ever studied law a whole day in my life.^' 

"How then, Mr. Havens,^^ asked the astonished 
lawyer, " could you stand up and contradict me so pos- 



142 



itively in my legal positions on yesterday, in that 
case?^^ 

Why/"' said Mr. Havens in reply, I knew that all 
true laws were founded on common sense, and this your 
law points contradicted ; and therefore I felt free to 
contradict you/^ 

The lawyer could but laugh at this new conception 
of the basis of law principles, and he turned away from 
his clerical opponent, fully convinced that he had bet- 
ter steer wide of these old preachers, particularly when 
he had a guilty client to defend. 

In the associations of the ministry Mr. Havens, as a 
matter of course, vras often thrown with learned men, 
some of whom differed with him very greatly on many- 
points of his Methodist theology, as well as in the prin- 
ciples of his church discipline ; and, as he was not very 
strongly disposed to yield any of his principles to the 
laws of either courtesy or compromise, he was fre- 
quently led into fireside debates, where often his powers 
of defence and success were as severely tested as they 

ever were anvwhere else. 
%j 

Methodism in Indiana was in the enjoyment of its 
chivalric days, during a large portion of his ministry, 
aud its numerous sweeping revivals, and its high toned 
sacrificing itinerancy had given it a prestige of majesty 
which perhaps no other church in those days could 
claim. 

The clarion voice of Rhoderic Dhu, among the clans 
of Scotland, was not more soul stirring than the trum- 
pet tones of many of these backwoods ministers ; for 
most of them had drawm the old Jerusalem blade of 



143 



Gospel power when they were in the full fire of their 
youthful blood, and having thrown away the scabbard^ 
they were always ready for the battle on any field^ and 
at any hour. 

Like the minute-men of an army of well drilled 
warriors^ they were ready to say to their commanders^ 
Here am I ; send me/^ The very spirit of their sac- 
rifice gave them a moral pre-eminence, and a personal 
power, which awed into respect, in most cases, even the 
obdurate, and not unfrequently opened their way 
among the first and foremost families of the country. 

When such a man as Mr. Havens was going to 
preach, the best educated and most prominent citizens 
of the community Avere to be seen in the congregation. 
They went out to hear him, not because they were 
Methodists, for frequently they were not. Governors^ 
Senators, Congressmen, Judges, LaAyyers, Physicians, 
and Ministers of other churches were there, to listen to 
the Gospel of the Son of God, and to take notes of the 
eloquent originality of a native orator. 

On such occasions these old Gospel heroes well knew 
that it would not do to make a failure, and, moved by 
the wild but evangelical inspiration of the hour, they 
often preached away above themselves; and the whole 
audience would feel when the sermon was over, as if 
they had been listening to the deep-toned melodies of 
Calvary itself. Such, indeed, Avas the effect of many 
of the sermons preached by Mr. Havens and his asso- 
ciate hero brethren of the Indiana itinerancy; and it 
was not strange, therefore, that thousands applied to 
them the ancient attestation, ^' of a truth these men are 



144 



Christians, for their preaching is with the demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit, and in power/^ 

In one of Mr. Havens^ Quarterly-meeting visits to 
Indianapolis, he was stopped on the street by His 
Excellency Governor Noah Noble, and invited to be 
his guest during the occasion. Of course, Mr. Havens 
felt it to be his duty to accept the kind invitation, as he 
knew the Governor had been raised a Methodist ; and 
though not yet a member himself, he was satisfied that 
the best hospitalities of the Gubernatorial mansion would 
be granted him, and he wheeled around his old roan and 
followed the distinguished statesman to his home. 

Conducted to the parlor, after he had disrobed him- 
self of his overcoat and leggins, Mr. Havens was kindly 
and politely seated in the best chair in the room, when 
the Governor informed him that he had been thinking 
about him for several days, and he had been ardently 
wishing for just such a visit. 

Well, Governor,^^ responded the old itinerant, ^^if 
I can do you any good I shall prize my visit as provi- 
dential, for I had intended stopping at another place ; 
but, as I am now here, I will ask the privilege of say- 
ing one thing to you before I leave, which, I have no 
doubt, if you will act upon, it will be classed among 
the best acts of your life.^^ 

" Well, Brother Havens, what is it ? Let me hear it, 
just here and now,^^ asked the venerable Governor. 

" You know, Governor,^^ said Mr. Havens, that I 
have always been your friend, both politically and per- 
sonally, and I have felt often, that after all, I had not 
been true to you/^ 



145 



Why, yes, Brother Havens/^ the Governor respond- 
ed, you have, as far as I know, in every particular/^ 

Yes, but I know that I have not,^^ said the old and 
conscientious itinerant. " I have never told you,^^ he 
then added, witii his eye fixed on that of the Governor, 
that you owe it to yourself and your family, and to the 
education your mother gave you, to join the church/^ 
This sort of an appeal was certainly more than the 
Governor was looking for — for, in a moment, the great 
tear of contrition was in his eye, and, turning to his 
venerable friend and giving him his hand, as if guided 
by some unseen power, he said : 

Brother Havens, I have always intended to be a 
Methodist ; but a thousand influences have prevented me 
from carrying out my resolution, and I will say to you 
now, that I will carry it out yet, and that, too, before 
very long.^^ 

Mr. Havens was highly gratified to hear the Gov- 
ernor thus express himself, and of course, reminded 
him that procrastination was the thief of time.^^ 

In less than a year from the date of this visit, the 
amiable and popular Governor of Indiana was on his 
dying pillow, and, Mr. Havens being forty miles away, 
the Governor sent for the stationed minister of the old 
Methodist church, Rev. Lucien AV. Berry, to come and 
see him, which he did ; and, at the Governor's request, 
he received him into the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and administered to him the Lord^s Supper ; and a few 
days after he preached his funeral sermon, to an 
immense congregation of deeply stricken and sorrow- 
ing relatives and friends. 
13 



146 



CHAPTER Xy. 

PERSONAL POPULARITY, 

The capriciousness of popular fame has always ren- 
dered it dangerous to the ministry, for in this profes- 
sion, more than in any other, it is apt to be attended 
with such a profusion of compliments, such a flood of 
flattery, as has often spoiled, for all future time, many 
a young man who, but for such manifestations, might 
have done some substantial good in the world, and 
made a reputation which would have gone down 
through the ages. 

The multitude run after the star of the hour, and 
worship it only for its glittering brilliancy. They 
care not for either its history or destiny, and they 
applaud it only for its present accomplishments. The 
circuit fame of many Methodist preachers has only 
had a short lived continuance, because of this very 
capriciousness. Operating, as they chiefly did, upon 
the multitude, a single sermon often sent them to the 
pinnacle of fame, while another just as often gave their 
names and efforts some other direction. 

In the matter of ministerial supplies, the people have 
always been captious, and have demanded, as a quid 
pro quo for their stipends and confidence, that the man 
who taught them in holy things should possess nearly 
as many attributes as an angel, and especially, if not 
above all, that he should show himself able to make 
full proof of his ministry at the smallest possible ex- 
penditure. * 



147 



In the early days of our Western civilization^ when 
Mr. Havens was in his prime, the dogmatic captious- 
ness of the people, y\^as often as capricious and prescrip- 
tive as it was selfish and scrutinizing, as they often 
refused to accord either confidence or fame to such as 
carried high heads or wore fashionable clothes, or who 
put on the airs of either the fop or the pedant. The 
original settlers all had a partial eye for plainness in 
dress and for unostentatious piety, and they but seldom 
yielded the compliments of respect, or the ceremonies 
of politeness, to any minister who walked out of the 
ordinary track of the plainest simplicity. Hence, it 
was not an uncommon occurrence for a young preach- 
er to be condemned, all around his circuit, because he 
had the gait of a dandy, or, which was but little less to 
be censured, was suspicioned for having a touch of 
the big head.^^ 

The latter defection was thought, even in the olden 
days, to be fearfully prevalent ; and, as some may not 
fully comprehend what is meant by it, we will attempt 
its explanation by the following little incident, which 
occurred in an Annual Conference of the African Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, held some years ago in Indi- 
anapolis : 

The usual examination of the preachers^ characters 
w^as on hand, and the Presiding Elders in representing 
the young men, stated that several of them were some- 
what afflicted with "the big head.'^ Bishop Quinn 
who was presiding over their deliberations, finally said : 

" Brethren, I have heard a great deal this morning 
about ^the big head.^ I wish some of you would 
explain what you mean by it.^^ 



148 



One of the brethren jumped to his feet and offered 
the following, which is perhaps the best explanation 
which can be made upon the subject : 

^* Bishop/^ said he, I kin ^splain de. matter to you 
all, in a very few words/^ 

I will thank you, brother, then, to do it," said the 
Bishop. 

Well sir ! responded the grateful expositor, 
When any one preacher knows too much for one 
man, and yet not quite enough for two, we say he's 
got de big head, and it's not more dan one time out 
of ten, dat we ever finds ourselves mistaken/' 

It has often, no doubt, been the case even among 
w^hite preachers, that conceit and brass have been sub- 
stituted for brains and piety; but all such samples of 
the Ministrv have been of but little real benefit to 
either themselves or the Church, until they were well 
cured of the malady. 

With such scions of gospel itinerants, Mr. Havens 
was often as severe as he was plain and sarcastic, and 
he has frequently been known to administer such 
heavy doses of his caustic medicine when he thought 
the occasion demanded it, that the patient was either 
killed outright in his ministerial pretensions, or was so 
far cured as to never show any further symptoms of 
the disease. 

In one of these instances he told the young preacher 
that he did not believe he had ever had a call to the 
ministry. 

The young preacher averred that he had. 
Well/' said Mr. Havens "\t may be possible that 



149 



I am mistaken — but I am very much afraid he added, 
" if you have ever had a call it was only a mere 
whisper/' 

To many it was always a matter of wonder that Mr. 
Havens should be so very popular as a minister — 
when it was so evident that it was an element of char- 
acter that he never sought and which his independent 
spirit, as it seemed, would always hold back from him. 
But somehow, in spite of his personal indifference on 
the subject, he attained even in his earlier years the 
reputation of popularity both as a man and a minister, 
and he continued to hold it, up to the latest hour of 
his life. 

Among those who knew him best, it was always well 
understood, that he would not turn on his heel from 
the line of duty, or from any of his rightful positions, 
to curry the favor, or to pander to the prejudices of 
any one, either high or low. The fact was always 
apparent, that he was neither a trimmer, nor a time- 
server. His was the spirit of the hero — which was 
always ready to fight for the right, and to battle against 
any foe, no matter how fearful might be the odds. 
Respectful, as he ever was toward all dignitaries, both 
of Church and State, he was nevertheless unwilling to 
yield to them the fawning knee of the sycophant, or 
the un manliness of a subordinate truculency. 

Wkiat he was, and where he stood, as well as what 
he thought, could always be known among friends and 
foes. He scorned concealments and detested hypocrisy 
of every character, and if, at any time, he suspected 
the one or saw the other in any of his bretlipen, he 



150 I 

discounted them at once in his esteem, and mourned ! 
their weakness of spirit, as he would the aberrations 

and defects of his own kindred. | 

To wear laurels of popular favor in his day, cost " 

many a struggle, for there were always around him, i 

and sometimes even among his brethren, those who ' 

would have held him back, if it had been in their ^ 

power. They felt that they were his superiors in | 

educational knowledge, and therefore, expected of him ^ 

those compliments of deference, which he was but 't 

seldom Avilling to yield to any one. What they were, ;j 

in their personal claims he well understood, for his k 

thorough knowledge of human nature, and his pene- ' 
trating eye of scrutiny, gave him the insight of their 

/ characters, and when they made pretentious demands Ij 

on his credulity, he looked the insult in the face, and \[ 

brooked it only as he would the egotistical ebullition^ il 

of children. Among this class, Mr. Havens held not I 

so much the popularity of ardent respect, as that of |' 
servile fear, for he forced them to a respectful defer- 
ence by the truthful dignity of his positions, even 
when they had none, of any account, for the man. 

It will therefore be perceived that his reputation 
and personal popularity were more the result of his 
heroism than of his truculent obedience to either the 

caprices of men around him, or to the time-serving 1 

spirit of popular compromise. Indeed, through all \ 

his life, his chief aim was to stand in the right, to j 
maintain, as far as he could, that which was true and 

just, and if in doing so, he sometimes saw the laurels I 

droppi^ig from his brow, it neither awed him to a halt | 



151 



or deterred liim from his purpose. To compromise 
with wrongs or to give way to the torrent of any sort 
of a corrupt public opinion, in his esteem^ was yielding 
to moral cowardice the highest and best manliness of 
our natures, and on this noble conviction, which he 
always heroically adhered to^ may we base the personal 
popularity of his entire life. 

Men of all classes honored him because they knew he 
was honesty and they reverenced him because of his brave 
and fearless adherence to the truth and the right. 

That these traits in his character sometimes made 
him enemies even among his brethren we are free to 
admit. — but even this did not quench the ardor of his 
spirit, or in the least cower him into submission. 
Even when he was openly assailed^ as he occasionally 
was for his brave eff'orts to vindicate the purity of the 
Churchy and the laws of truth and justice^ he stood 
his ground with the moral firmness of a hero^ and 
seemed never for a moment to stop to ask whether his 
position would give him standing in his Conference^ or 
make him more acceptable among his people. Any 
such consideration, would have degraded him in his 
own estimation, which he always felt to be a greater 
calamity^ than the dogmatic censures of a thousand 
delinquents. 

The fact that the attributes of the Christian Min- 
istry, even in its ordinary grades^ are necessarily more 
multiform than attach to the other professions^ may 
be readily recognized in almost ev^ry community^ and 
it is on this account that a continued personal popu- 
larity in the higher office is the more remarkable. 



152 



Skill alone will secure professional fame to the 
physician^ even where there is but little else to com- 
mend him^ and the lawyer may become a counsellor of 
renown, merely because he is well read in the law and 
possesses the powers of an eloquent advocate, but at 
the hands of the minister, who is looked upon as the 
expounder of the higher law, even the commonest 
people demand the sublimity of the highest example. 

It is because of this rigid requisition that so many 
who fill the sacred desk, never rise to a higher stand- 
ard than that of mere mediocres. The timidity of the 
man-pleaser holds them in tame subordination to the 
popular will, and yet, however faithfully they serve it, 
they never attain to any real popularity themselves. 

To win and wear the chaplets of popular fame 
through a long ministerial life, requires the honesty of 
an unwavering integrity, as well as the thorough hero- 
ism of an unflinching moral aggression. If these are 
bartered off, in any way, to secure temporary personal 
preferment, the misguided wight will ultimately find 
himself as poor in fame and in the higher confidence of 
his holy office, as if he had made a public sale of all 
his sacred effects. 

The simple duties of his station, which he always 
endeavored to perform for the honor of the Church 
and the good of the people, ever presented to Mr. 
Havens his highest obligations. To their honest and 
faithful performance he gave all of the best energies of 
his yearvS, never turning to the right or the left to 
gratify any worldly ambition, or to serve the pur- 
poses of any mere personal and selfish policy. And 



153 



so far as he became (li.stinguished, it was the result of 
his heroic genius and indomitable will^ in connection 
with his steady and stern devotion to the law of ecj[ual 
justice to ail, and of his unwillingness, on all occa- 
sions, to daub with untempered mortar. 

In the annual gatherings of his brethren in their 
Conference capacity, he was always deeply concerned 
in every question of vitality, and he always took his 
positions upon them regardless of what might be the 
majority on either side. Though not given to wrang- 
ling debate, or even disposed to contend in matters 
that did not concern his department of the work, he 
often felt it his duty to speak out when any policy 
was before them which he thought would have any 
bearing on the purity of the Church or the stability of 
the public piety. His influence on such occasions, 
though not always successful, was, nevertheless, both 
felt and acknowledged, and but few of his brethren, 
for many years, excelled him either in general influ- 
ences or in conservative power. 

Associated as he was with such Conference giants as 
Armstrong, Strange, Wiley, Ruter, Oglesby, Thompson 
and many others, Mr. Havens held the honor of being 
a peer among his equals, and in every respect main- 
tained the credit and character of a leading member 
in these annual convocations. Xever assuming and 
never aspiring to any sort of Conference favoritism, 
he yet was often honored with the sufifrao:es of his 
brethren to the highest positions in their gift. In his 
case, these honors were the more reputable, because, as 
was frequently remarked, he never sought them by 
14 



154 



tricks of ma lagement^ or with any special efforts to 
gain the popular favor. 

Independent and decided, uncompromising and de- 
voted^ he always stood in his place^ like a sentinel of 
honor^ who occupied his position by divine appoint- 
ment^ and it appeared as if he would rather die than 
shrink from any responsibility or prove recreant to 
duty. 

Among the people^ particularly^ Mr. Havens was 
very generally a favorite. They admired him for his 
heroic virtues^ as well as for his personal integrity, 
and when they sat under his ministry, they felt they 
were listening to one who would dare to preach the 
truth^ and who would not hesitate to rebuke sin, of 
any and every character, regardless of the civil or 
social standing of the transgressor^ even though he 
was found in the ministry itself. 

In the circles of private life he maintained the 
independence of his integrity with the same firmness 
of spirit which distinguished his public labors, and it 
may be safely said, that but few ministers who have 
ever been known in the State^ were more frank or 
fearless in administering private reproofs, even where 
the subject, as was often the case^ belonged to the 
highest social circles. 

The great personal popularity of such a man was 
. rather an anomaly in the workings of popular favor, 
for it was directly antagonistic to the common modes 
of securing such an end. For even his complacency 
had in it more of the dignity and independence of the 
reserved minister, than of the seeker of popular favor. 



155 



This^ indeed^ was natural with him, and he never 
troubled himself much in learning any other accom- 
plishment. In this regard he did not at any time or 
anywhere even seem to think of popularity. He was 
too proud spirited to seek it, and he always had too 
much respect for himself to lay any plans to obtain it. 
And yet but fevs^ ministers who have ever labored in 
the State had a greater share of it or enjoyed, both 
living and dying, more of its honors. 

We once heard one of his parishioners, Mrs. Julia 
Carr, of Rushville, a lady of intelligence and sterling 
integrity, say of Father Havens : 

^"^I do not know what we shall all do w^hen Father 
Havens dies, for we have looked up to him so long as 
our apostle, minister and friend, that I am often led to 
fear, when I think of it, that when he dies we will 
never again have a man to take his place. 

Another lady of that vicinity, who has also long 
been a pillar in the Church, Mrs. Elizabeth Yv'ooster, 
whose words of praise would do honor to any minister^ 
once said of him : 

I have known John Strange and Eussel Bigelow, 
and I have heard them and many others of equal 
distinction preach, but I must confess that my par- 
tiality for Father Havens makes me prefer to hear 
him above any preacher I have ever known. 

These confirmations of the popular fame of Mr. 
Havens as one of the heroes of Indiana Methodism, 
though coming from women, are to be placed to his 
credit as being golden. They knew him well as a 
minister, and as a man, as a neighbor and as a citizen, 



1 



156 I 

through most of the years of his long and laborious | 

itinerancy^ and their testimony in his popular favor is i 
worthy of record as being as intelligent and frank as it 
is truthful and appropriate. 

Living witnesses by the hundreds would willingly | 

take the stand to give evidence to the same import ; ; 

and the fact that thousands^ both old and young, have • 

asked that a life of him be written evinces the deep j 

hold the heroic apostle had upon the public mind. i 

The old had heard him in the days of his vigor, and jj 

the young had listened to his voice when it was husky f 

with age^ and now that he has gone they desire that |] 

some memento may be given them that they may I 
remember him forever. 



f 



157 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HIS GEXERALSHIP. 

Every calling of life has its distinctive leaderships^ 
as well as its subordinate relations^ the one developing 
the higher talent of command and authority, and tke 
other giving us^ in the multitude^ the more common 
order of implicit obedience. The one presents us with 
the hero born to command/^ and the other congre- 
gates before us the million, who prefer to be led by a 
gallant captain rather than be at the trouble and 
expense of fighting for personal power^ or of running 
the danger of having no protector. 

More particularly than in any other church relation 
we have ever had any knowledge of^ the Methodist 
itinerancy in its earlier days, furnished a field where 
moral generalship was not only in great demand, but 
where its authority was complete, while its victories 
were often of the most thrilling character. 

The preacher in charge of a circuit held the com- 
mand over hundreds who gave him their confidence, 
and who would follow wherever he led the way — while 
the yet higher dignitary, the Presiding Elder, ruled 
in a much larger field, and besides his preachers on the 
circuits, he had the commanding influence to direct in 
the moral and church movements of thousands over his 
District, who would keep step to his orders and sound 
the tocsin of revival eftbrt, wherever he directed the 
onset. 



I 



158 I 

With large Circuits and Districts^ which covered^ j 

perhaps^ one-eighth of the territory of the State, the ' 
esprit de corps carried with it generally, a revival 
power, which attracted the attention of -all classes, and 

not unfrequently gave them audiences, numbering | 

from five, to ten, and fifteen thousand people. - 

On these Quarterly and Camp meeting occasions, 
the Presiding Elder by general consent as well as from | 
deference to his high office, was ex-officioj commander- 
in-chief of all the forces present, and what he said or i 
determined upon, usually became the law and order of ^ 
the meeting. Of course his responsibility was great, 
for he not only had to manage the pulpit and altar, ' 
but to a great extent he Avas held responsible for the ' 
general conduct of the congregation as well as for the 1 
entire order of the meeting. i 

To attend to all these important interests promptly, 

and in their Methodistic order, was certainly no ordi- ! 

nary obligation, and the talents and experience of a | 
Major General were requisite for the victory. The 

crowds in attendance upon these meetings, were usually i 

honest farmers, and good citizens from the towns and j 

villages, who, with their families, came to hear the j 
preaching of the Word, and to help on in the great 

crusade against the moral evils of the age. With the j 

government of these there was usually no difficulty — | 

for they were as honest as they were reverent ; and if || 

they did not make a profession of religion, they had j 

for the cause and its ministers a decent respect, as they | 
also had for the place of worship. But there were 

others who were not so orderly, for every class attended i 



159 



these meetings, and it was not uncommon for some of 
them, to so far forget themselves, as to disturb the 
worship and solemnities of the occasion. 

At these meetings the preaching was designed to 
awaken every listener to an intelligent sense of his 
moral condition, and to lead him at once — then and 
there — to seek his souFs salvation. Frequently the 
storm raged high, and the blasts of the horns of the 
people shook the walls of Jericho to their very 
foundations. 

The fact may appear as a strange phenomenon, but 
it was often realized on these occasions, that 
Devil got mad before they were fairly in sailing 
oixler. ilmong such old war Generals as Mr. Havens, 
these ireful demonstrations were ahvays considered 
ominous of great revival success; for it seemed that 
their greatest dread was " a dead calm,^^ and when 
they saw the wicked angry at their simple and peaceable 
efforts to save souls, they were confident of a crisis, 
which, in their view, would result in a great revival. 

The vast numbers who v\^ere converted under the 
labors of these heroes of Methodism, gave to the order 
its richest prestige, and added to the general Church 
many of the chaplets of its most distinguished renown. 

These crusades were not for personal glory, but 
were always made in view of the reform of the people. 
No pains were spared or labor denied to secure this 
end, without regard to grades or classes, and totally 
irrespective of what the world, or even other denomin- 
ations, might say against them. They defied criticism, 
and pushed the battle to the gate,'' while the very 



I GO 



music of the revival storm often attracted to their 
meetings hundreds vvho never left them mitil they 
went away wiser and better men. 

On the 25th of August, 1836, Mr. Havens held a 
camp meeting on what has since been called the '^Mili- 
tary Ground/^ immediately west of the State House. 
The attendance was large^ and on Sunday was estimated 
to number some six or seven thousand people. 

Quite a number of preachers were there to assist iu 
the labors, and the zeal and devotion of the member- 
ship of the Church Vv^ere honored with a success which 
was, at that time., counted extraordinary. 

An incident occurred at this meeting which evinced 
the heroic generalship of Mr. Havens, and demon- 
strated the fact that a man may be brave before his 
equals, but when he is taken in hand by a moral hero^ 
the ardor of his soul gives way to a power which he 
feels, but can not see. 

One of the most notorious leaders of what was then 
called and known as the " Chain Gang,^^ at the Capital^ 
appeared at this camp meeting, and by his presence 
and threats, created quite an excitement. The fellow 
was strong and athletic, and prided himself on hi^ 
physical power, and had often boasted that the man 
did not walk the earth who could handle him or put 
him hors dii combat. Of course, ^ven the officers of 
the law feared such a customer and if he was regu- 
lated and made to keep in the bounds of order, it was 
thought that the Presiding Elder himself would have 
to accomplish the work by some sort of strategy. 

On Saturday night word was sent in to the preach- 



Uj] 



ers^ tent, to Mr. Havens, that this old Captain Avas on 
the ground, and great fears were entertained from his 
threats, that he would do some serious mischief. 

Mr. Havens arose from his bed and dressed himself, 
and with a few chosen friends, sallied forth in c[uest of 
the depredator. The night was dark, and the dim 
camp-fires gave the only light by which any one could 
be recognized. 

To take such a man prisoner was well understood to 
be a dangerous effort, and, as a matter of caution^ the 
jjQsse moved in a body, for a fight was expected, as 
they all knew that the rovvdy Captain was afraid of 
nothing, and would not be disposed to yield to any 
mere ceremony. 

When they came up to where he was, Mr. Havens 
spoke to him and gave him his hand, which he held 
on to, while a fi^iend seized the other hand, and before 
he knew it the Captain was a prisoner. Of course, 
when he learned the condition he was in, he made 
some effort to rescue himself, but he soon found it was 
all in vain, and Cjuietly yielding, he Vv'as led before a 
magistrate, vrho committed him to prison. The fol- 
lowing Monday, however, Mr. Havens visited him at 
the jail, and after a good long talk, went to the magis- 
trate and had him released. The old Chain Gang 
Captain never troubled Mr. Havens again. 

At a camp meeting held in the Haw Patch, in Bar- 
tholomew county, in the summer of 1844, Mr. Jria vens 
was greatly annoyed by a number of fellows of the 
baser sort,'^ who were dis}„<jk>sed to disregard the rules 
of the meeting, and who^ to show their contempt for 



162 



the authority of the officers and preachers^ seated 
themselves on the benches which had been specifically 
designated for the ladies. To get them to move, the 
rules of the meeting were read; but still they kept 
their seats, regardless of their own self-respect and of 
the request of the Presiding Elder. 

The young men had evidently reckoned without 
their host, for the spirit of order in Mr. Havens was 
stirred to its highest point, and he took his position in 
the ^tand and again politely requested them to move 
to the male side of the congregation, where he pointed 
to seats that were vacant. To this request all yielded 
save two, Vv^ho concluded they would stand, or rather 
sit, on their reserved rights until they got ready to 
move. 

Mr. Havens eyed them closely and gave them time 
to change their seats, and when he found they were 
determined to defy him he addressed them as follows : 

" Gentlemen, you must vacate those seats. These 
people have placed them there exclusively for the 
ladies, and we can not allow such fellows as you are 
to occupy them. 

Gentlemen, I know something of your characters, 
which you, perhaps, are not aware of, and if I am 
forced to do it, I shall have to expose you before this 
intelligent and large congregation. 

The . name of one of you, I see, is w^ritten plainly 
in your face, and it is Hangman. The other, I ob- 
serve, has his name written in significant letters upon 
his hat, and I shall read it, Scape Gallows, 

" And now Mr. Hangman, and Mr. Scape Gallows, 



163 



YOU have but five minutes to complv with my request. 
I know there is a sufficient number of young gent]e- 
men on this ground who will volunteer instantlv to 
compel you to respect our rules, if you remain obstin- 
ate/^ Then turning to the audience, he said : 

Young men, are you willing , that your mothers 
and sisters shall be insulted by a Hangman and a 
Scape Gallows ? 

A hundred voices thundered, Xo, never/^ Mr. 
Havens announced that four minutes had expired, and 
he immediately began to descend from the stand, when 
the two cowardly bullies feeling that discretion was 
the better part of valor,^^ arose from their seats and 
made for the w^oods, as if chased by the ghost of their 
own imbecile meanness. 

To deal with the rougher classes of men in the early 
history of the country, required something more than 
mere wdsdom. Many of them were of the more 
dangerous classes, and to hold them in decent check, 
even at religious meetings, it was sometimes necessary 
to use both language and means which were not com- 
mon to the ministry. 

Mr. Havens being instinctively, as well as, by com- 
mon consent, a leader, he was always looked up to in^ 
cases of emergency, and at his own meetings, as well as 
when he was only a visitor, if anything turned up out 
of the ordinary line, lie was always appealed to as the 
general of the hour. The people, as well as his brethren, 
knew that he was brave, and equal to any sort of a con- 
flict, and when interlopers stumbled in upon his meet- 
ings, he was always prepared to take notice of them. 



164 



At a camp meeting held near Laurel^ of which he 
had charge^ some half dozen young men^ who came on 
the ground carrying long spice- wood canes^ took espe- 
cial pains to make themselves conspicuous^ and in 
moving about over the grounds created quite a disturb- 
ance in the congregation. 

Mr. Havens noticed them^ and as he wished to see 
as little of them as possible^ he determined to teach 
them some- gospel politeness and reverence, if it was 
even at the expense of their imagined respectability. 

Taking his position in the stand at the close of 
public service^ he said : 

I observe some very strange looking young men 
here to-day. They are not so very strange in their 
looks, however, as they are in their actions. I see 
-they carry with them large sticks or spikes, and when 
they travel they march in single file. Some might 
take them for Indians, but they are not. If I were to 
guess, I would say they probably belong to that sin- 
gular class of men known as Virginia Sand Diggers.'^ 
At the mention of Sand Diggers, the young gentlemen 
all took their se^ts, and quietly hid away their canes 
under them, and the congregation saw no more of the 
^the imjpromtu display of either their canes or faces. 

The descision and promptness, which Mr. Havens at 
times displayed in carrying forward the great purposes 
of his ministry, may have savored somewhat of intol- 
erancy; but this was never either his meaning or 
intention, for, full of the kindliest spirit, and always 
open to the impulses of a generous nobility — but few 
men carried a heart of purer motives, or aimed to deal 



165 



fairer than he clid^ with his fellow men of all classes 
and conditions. 

True, he was sometimes sarcastic^ and dealt in the 
language of inquisition ; but this was only the natural 
outgrowth of his desire to do good of every possible 
sort^ and as far as possible to all men/^ Even in his 
attempts to govern^ he only aimed to dravv^ men from 
the wrong, and to direct them in the right^ and if in 
this^ he happened to overstep himself, but few were 
more ready to acknowledge it^ or to make a proper 
apology, for the utterance of any wrong expression or 
the manifestation of an uncharitable spirit. 

With his life running through more than six decades 
of the present century^ many of his dealings were 
with that race of giants and heroes, who have given 
such eclat to the early settlements of the West, and the 
spirit of firmness and self reliance, which was so per- 
ceptible in his character was the legitimate graduating 
result of his early associations. 

What he was in action, he was also in thought, and 
neither in the one or the other, did he ever wish to 
overreach a friend, or even do any injustice to an 
enemy. For it was ever the pride of his honor, to 
demonstrate the true attributes of the gentleman in. his 
life^ and to show by his spirit that he was above the 
arts of any accomplished duplicity. His life struggle 
was with himself, as well as with others, and as he 
often acknowledged^ he fonnd no easy task in either 
direction. The war within- — though unknown to any 
but himself — was often fiercely contested, but in the 
results he evidently came out the victor. But that 



166 



Avhich was without had been before the eye of the 
worlds and as thousands believed, it has given him a 
fee simple claim to the honor of being a hero. 

Others excelled him in learning^ and many in the 
purity of their eloquence, but in all that constitutes 
the Christian gentleman, or the brave old pioneer, 
Oliver H. Smithes sobriquet may be justly given him, 
viz.: " The Napoleon of Indiana Methodism. 

The race to which he belonged — of western pioneer 
itinerants — has become exthict, and the mere shadow 
of their fame, is now all that is left us. The light of 
their general examples may still linger around us, like 
the rays of the sunlight, when the substance has gone 
from our sight ; we would not forget them or turn 
away from their teachings, for no future age of our 
race, we opine, v/ill ever point to a higher moral in 
history or give to memory a brighter dream. 



167 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LIBERALITY OF SE^^TIMENT. 

The sentiment is both conservative and true^ that 
Christianity has but seldom been benefited by any 
mere dogmatic teachings, for dim in their reflections^ 
as well as feeble in their moral beaaty, all such instruc- 
tions have fallen short of the tone and spirit of its 
true character^ and^ therefore, they have operated 
everywhere as palpable misrepresentations of both its 
genius and divinity. 

Truth is known as being always simple, as well as 
conservative, and any dogmatic efforts to advance it 
must destroy in its manner, what it Vv^ould aim to 
accomplish even by the profoundest sincerity. 

Intelligent and liberal, forbearing and charitable^ 
both in precept and doctrine, the entire system of its 
philosophy is as delicate in its love as it is tender and 
pure in its promises. 

All that is good in life, or felicitous in associations^ 
has found its counterpart in the beauty of its morals, 
and, therefore, it can not tolerate a dogmatic spirit 
without contradicting both the simplicity and dignity 
of its own genius. 

If even history itself contradicts us in any of these 
affirmations, it but blots the pages of its own records^ 
and mocks the practical operations of the purest phil- 
osophy the world has ever known. That it does so we 
are fully aware, for it is abundantly evinced in the 



168 



history of the Church. But going back to the dicta- 
tions of the higher law/^ the authority is ours to 
write the declaration that intolerancy^ under the sur- 
veillance of Christianity^ has ever been recognized as 
only a degrading crime^ for which it has never prof- 
fered a single apology. 

The fact is a strange one^ but it is nevertheless true^ 
that illiberality of sentiment has always been the off- 
spring of Church pride^ instead of Christianity itself. 
The doctrine of one Church and one people may 
claim Divine paternity^ but what particular organiza- 
tion holds the keys of legitimacy, either apostolic or 
exclusive, may not so easily be asserted. Organic 
divinity is not so palpable and definite as that which 
is spiritual, for the one is of human ministration, 
while the other is wholly divine. The latter, like the 
sun, is essential to life, but the former may exist as a 
mere ecclesiastical ^and presumptions automaton, as 
destitute of the true animus of Christianity, as it is 
of any royal" claims to a divine exclusiveness. 

Vegetative power gives evidence of the life of the 
world, as procreation does of animal vitality, and yet, 
neither the one nor the other is subjected to any exclu- 
sive jurisdiction. Even life itself has vitality only 
where it is blest with the light of the sun, and the 
moral life of the world is subject to a similar jurisdic- 
tion of the Sun of Righteousness. Therefore, where 
the spirit of Christ is tliere is liberty, is the safest 
creed of humanity, and has long been the special faith 
of intelligent millions. 

The Popish claims of the Roman Church, and the 



1(39 



Episcopal pretensions of the English and Greek organi- 
zations, though standing on the highest hills of a ven- 
'erated antiquity, are only sustained in their divine 
supremacy by the musty pages of traditionary historv. 
What they are in their organic power may all be well 
enough and legitimate; but that this legitimacy gives 
any one or all of them the exclusive spiritual rule of 
the world of mankind is neither proved from the Holy 
Scriptures nor to be demonstrably maintained from the 
lights of history. 

The doctrine of one Holy Apostolic Church is not 
vindicated by them, for they constitute three separate 
and distinct organizations, as independent of each other 
as those of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, 
and it is this confusion, doubtless, which has led to the 
institution of so many sects and denominations. ' 

/Whether these multiplications of religious house- 
holds will the sooner bring about the reformation of 
the Vv'orld, remains to be seen. One thing, at least, is 
evident, even now, as is everywhere becoming more 
and more manifest, that is — the spirit of intolerancy is 
fast losing its hold on the christianized portions of the 
globe, and the divine right to an independant personal 
faith is rapidly assuming universal supremacy. The 
right to worship God in one\s own way is being clearly 
set up in all lands, and the divine jurisdiction of the 
Church, in any of its organizations or pretensions, is 
being disputed by millions of the best minds of the 
age. The advance in these regards may, by some, be 
considered sceptical and infidel ; but when the intelli- 
gent moral result is considered, it ^yill be seen that the 
15 



170 

evidences of Christian civilization are higher and raore 
permanent in the lands of freedom than in any country 
where church intolerancy rules the consciences of men. 

As a part of the fruits of this spiritual independence^ 
Mr. John Wesley^ a priest of the Church of England^ 
was led^ nearly a century and a half ago^ to organize 
his societies among the poor of that country^ in view 
of establishing a higher order of spiritual life, and of 
bringing the multitudes of the poor and the ignorant 
of his countrymen to a better state of society. i 

The reform was evidently needed all over England, 
vrhere they had long as grand a State Church as the 
world, perhaps, could boast of. This field was a large ' 
one, and he entered it with a zeal and success which , 
everywhere astonished his countrymen/ and though he |l 
did not expect it, God made him the spiritual head j 
of a people whose sacrifices and missionary zeal have ■] 
since placed them in the van among all the Churches of i 
Christendom. Receiving the baptismal appellation of . 
Methodism, and adopting the ef&cient economy of a I 
universal itinerancy, its dominion in a hundred years j 
has been made respectable -and influential even in the \ 
four quarters of the globe. j 

In doctrine and formulary order, the body, both in i 
Europe and America, has largely copied from the j 
Church of England, and though they make no preten- \ 
sions to any organic Apostolic succession, they hold 
with the Lutherans and Presbyterians that the spirit j 
of the office of the ministry is alone essential, and 
that the order of ordination amounts to nothing more 
than a mere Prelatical pretension. 



» 



171 



Taking no further notice of the Royal claims of the 
Church of Enukind, the ])reac]iers of rNlothodisni took 
for their motto^ '"The spread of Scriptural holiness 
over all lands/^ and driving to this point Avith a zeal 
vrhich has known no defeat, they liave icindled the fires 
of a free gospel and of a present salvation among 
almost everv people of the ]3olvo;lotic earth, and their 
ministry to-day vrill perhaps compare, in talents and 
accompiishmenr-. vritli that of any other Ciiurcli in the 
world. 2Ur. Wesley laid doAvn the axiom that ^* he 
was the greatest preacher vdio saved the most souls.*' 
and on this basis it may. perhaps, be still :-aid they yet 
make their ministerial i^-tim^.tes. 

Among them a preacher like Mr. Havens has always 
ranked well^ because he pns.-essed the essential elements 
of character to vindicate iii> chiinis to the true ministry^ 
and gave evidence of a life of pietv. sacrifice, and hfaior. 

The simple pretensions of Methodism opened up his 
way to tlie ministry when he knew that he had ijut few 
qualifications for tlie office, and in the sub-equent years 
of his long and useful life he always remicmbered ^'the 
hole of the pit from which he was digged,'' vdiich many 
ministers .are prone to f trgtt. But Avith him the les- 
sons of the past were golden remen^ Ijrances. and their 
]}OAYer over him made him as liberal toward others as 
he felt the Church had been toward him. 

It was this generous liberality of sentimenr whicli 
gave liim mnch of his ministerial nobility, and which 
added to his weight of character so extensively, not 
only in his own church, but among all others. 

Though a positive Methodist^ he was in no respects 



172 



a bigot, and though he often differed with his brethren^ 
he never showed obstinacy, unless it was against an 
open and palpable sin — and even then, if he was con- 
vinced that the guiky party had repented, lie w^ould 
forgive him as a brother and stand by him like a man. 

Towards all reputable ministers of other denomina- 
tions, Mr. Havens always conducted himself both court- 
eously and respectfully, and but few Methodist minis- 
ters of Indiana, perhaps, ever met with greater recipro- 
cal kindness at the hands of ministers of other churches. 
He knew them only as ministers, and as such, no mat- 
ter how much they differed with him in doctrines and 
discipline, he recognized their ministerial equality, and 
whenever he met them, he treated them accordingly. 

In learning he knew that many of them were great- 
ly his superior, and in this respect he thought it no re- 
flection upon his own character to defer to their higher 
attainments. 

We have only learned of one instance where there 
was any deviation from this accustomed principle of 
his life, and this was forced upon him by the egotism 
of the man and the circumstances of the occasion. 

He had been called out by a young divine to defend 
the common ideas of his church on the subject of bap- 
tism, and as the contestant was professedly a great lin- 
guist, he made very free use of the original Greek. 
This mode of argument, of course, was above Mr. 
Havens' pretensions, as well as of every other one in 
the large congregation ; and to show the utter folly and 
hopeless pedantry of the young man's mode of argu- 
mentation before such an audience, Mr. Havens gave 



173 



some of his ideas in the dialect of the Pottawatomies, 
an Indian tribe with which he had had some acquaint- 
ance^ and the result of the sarcastic exposure drove the 
young divine to the wall^ and left Mr. Havens the hero 
of the hour. 

In such conflicts many of the ministers of nearly all 
the t?hurches frequently indulged. Indeed^ such debates 
constituted to a large extent the animus of the times^ 
and^ in many localities, gave quite a polemic stamp to 
the religion of the people. 

But to a mind like that of Mr. Havens all such re- 
ligious displays augured but poorly of any particular 
piety or Christian devotion, and he usually sparred al} 
such attacks aside^ as being beneath the dignity of his 
notice and unworthy of his steel. 

In the mere matter of religious theories he never 
invested very extensively^ for he was. in every sense of 
the word, a minister of practical life, and to this end 
he made his war on sin and its concomitant adjuncts^ 
as he always felt that this, especially, was the great ob- 
ject of his mission. 

In one of his quarterly meeting visitations in the 
nortiieast part of the State, a number of years ago, Mr. 
Havens put up at the only public house in the place, 
where he found that the Circuit Court was in session, 
and consequently the tavern was Avell crowded with 
members of the bar. The large room in which these 
lawyers slept contained three beds, and as there were 
only five of them, the landlord arranged, with their 
consent, that the Presiding Eider should sleep with one 
of the lawyers. 



174 



Taking Mr. Havens into the room^ the landlord 
politely introduced him to each one of the la\Yyers5 | 
^vho were all seated around a table amusing themselves I 
at a game of cards. . 

Mr. Havens took his seat by the fire without saying j 
a word^ and they went on with the card-playing as if ,j 
there had been no interruption. Unknovai to him^ 
they played, to decide which one should sleep with the j 
preacher^ and after that game was over^ the lawyer who ; 
had been thus destined to be his bed-fellow^ supposing j 
Mr. Havens would wish to retire^ pointed out the bed • 
he would occupv, when thev went on with another I 
game. ' ' 

BeinoT" a stranger, althouo^h he had but little faith in 
their card-playing^ he did not say a word, but when he |( 
got ready^ he took his chair to the designated bed, and 'j 
began to undress; but before getting into the bed, he ^ 
knelt, as he had long been accustomed to, to offer up jj 
his evening thanks to the Lord of all grace and for 
the mercies of the day. ! 

Looking around and seeing the quiet and dignified 
minister upon his knees, the hands of each lawyer were ] 
laid upon the table as if struck with paralysis, and not ' 
a card was thrown until the minister had finished his 
prayer and laid his head upon his pillow and was hid- 
den away by the covers from their eyes. This unex- 
pected and silent rebuke, which was as liberal as it was 
intelligent and appropriate, so awed them into rever- 
ence that they all, a few minutes after, rose from the 
table, and the cards were seen no m.ore. 



175 



The next morning they looked at him as if he had 
been a special Grand Jury, and eacli man seemed to 
fear that some specific indictment wouki be found 
against him for his past night\s offence. Several apolo- 
gies were attempted, but Mr. Havens assured them 
that he was not hurt, or even disappointed in their con- 
duct. He gave them, however^ to understand that^ as 
far as he knew, it vv'as the general sentiment that but 
few- lawyers went to heaven anyhovr, and if this was 
the case, he thought it would hardly be justifiable to 
rob them cf any of their privileges here. Two or 
three of these lawyers were in his congregation the 
next Sunday, and listened to his sermon with the deep- 
est apparent interest. 

Mr. Havens, for many years, was extensively ac- 
Cjuainted with the bar of Eastern and Central Indiana^ 
and he iiad the pleasure often of seeing them in his 
conQ:reo-itions. A number of them became members 
of the Church, and in many respects did honor to their 
profession. 

The fact that Mr. Havens, in his forcible and ener- 
getic manner, mainly aimed to reach the hearts of the 
people, and to reform society from the common evils of 
the day^ and that he made no attacks upon sister 
churches or their rninisrers, gave him the high respect 
of all classes and the particular good will of the largest 
minded men of the country. 

He had no love fo. bigots or bigotry^ and just as 
little fjr upstarts and sycophants of any profession. If 
he met with any such, even in the ministry, he showed 



176 



them no favor: but^ on the other hand^ he not iinfre- 
quently administered a withering rebuke^ ttie remem- 
brance of which they could but carry with them to 
their graves. But ever kind and tender to the weak 
and unfortunate^ he always gave them his sympathy 
with the profoundest sincerity. 



177 



CHAPTER XVIII, 

PATRIOTISM. 

Among the virtues of men^ patriotism is one of the 
highest and noblest^ for it gives to the citizen the 
credit of fraternal devotion, as well as the piety of the 
honest man. Without it no one can merit the public 
confidence^ or vindicate the character of Christian con- 
sistency—for the laws of God demand its obligations 
at the hands of all men. The ancients inferred that 
governments were permanent in proportion to the piety 
of the people^ and it was not until the tyranny of 
kings had trodden the rights of the masses into the 
dust^ that the heroes of liberty began to teach the 
more daring theory^ that resistance to tyrants is obe- 
dience to GodJ^ 

The growth of this virtue, in its higher and grander 
developments^ has been found to be a product of the 
ages. It is never an exotic; for though men have 
sometimes volunteered their services in behalf of coun- 
tries to which they were strangers^ the devotion has 
been only the impulse of temporary sympathy^ instead 
of the inspiration of a long lived patriotism. 

Even here in our own land this virtue may often be 
doubted^ for devotion to private interests is no evidence 
of this public attachment; and where men from for- 
eign countries have made this ^^the land of their 
adoption/' the act has doubtless been impelled by their 
own personal welfare^ and this principle alone has 
16 



178 



given us the greater portion of this class of our popu- 
lation. 

The land of our birth^ and the land of our fathers^ 
the home of our schoolboy days^ and the country 
of our personal fortunes^ furnishes the only soil on 
which true patriotism can flourish. It is under such 
regime alone that we find its best developments — its 
noblest virtues. Nowhere else have its cions grown to 
any high or manly perfection^ and no where else has 
history pointed us to its loftiest examples. 

Leonidas gave to Greece the brightest coronet of her 
renown^ and the glory of William Tell made Switzer- 
land immortal. What Csesar did for Rome^ though 
called ambition by his mistaken enemies, was only the 
higher strides of an imperial patriotism. Even the 
great Napoleon loved France second only to himself^ 
and with all his ambition^ he never sought dominions 
to his own empire Avithout wanting his beloved France 
to have the glory of his achievments. The greatest 
crime of his illustrious life was the sacrifice of the noble 
Josephine to satisfy the morbid greed of France to 
secure a legitimate(?) successor to wear his imperial 
crown. 

In monarchial governments patriotism is not so much 
a virtue as what has been styled loyalty/^ which has 
usually signified devotion to the ruling dynasty. The 
support of the king, in all such countries, has ordi- 
narily been considered the highest virtue of the govern- 
ment. But here in our own Republic, where every 
citizen is a sovereign, the responsibility of a patriotic 
life has, from the beginning, been held as the sacred 



179 



obligation of all classes, and even of the most humble. 
Our constitutions exonerate none from the burdens of 
taxation, and demand that every constituent should be 
true to the ballot-box. 

Even the ministers of religion are not exempted from 
the obligations of the one or the duties of the other. 
The laws of the land know them only as citizens, and 
as such, except in a few States, they are entitled to 
all the rights and immunities of their countrymen. 

Having no established religion, and giving no pref- 
erence to any ecclesiastical organization, our Govern- 
ment extends to all churches, and to all ministers, pro- 
tection in their worship and a delicate guardianship of 
their faiths and creeds of every class and character. 

What men believe in religion is not the concern of 
the Government, and their modes of worship are all 
left to themselves. But reverence for our constitutions 
and respect for our laws are made the tests of our 
patriotism, and wherever they are disregarded, the in- 
subordination is esteemed as a breach of the public 
faith which no leniency can justify without penalty. 

To the honor of our American clergy, the record 
may be justly made that the great body of them have 
always been found true to what they have understood 
to be the patriotic interests of the Republic. If there 
have been any errors, even in extreme instances, the 
dereliction has not been for the want of any patriotic 
devotion, but must be traced to that zeal which, though 
radical as it may have been, led them on in their mis- 
sion of redemption, dark and fearful as was the storm. 

That some, even in the ministry of the churches, 



180 



have been^ at times, too much given to the partizan 
cares of political life, may be frankly and readily ad- 
mitted ; but their zeal in this respect should, doubtless^ 
find some apology in the fact that it is possible for even 
a good man to be more excessive in his patriotism than 
in his piety. This, indeed, is apt to be the case in 
, times of great commotion, and more particularly so 
when the questions at issue have the hue of a seeming 
morality. Under such circumstances, men will some- 
times do wrong even when they intend only to do 
right. They see the moral beauty of their grand objec- 
tive point, and often rush toward it with an impetuous 
fearlessness that snaps the cords of tenderness and 
breaks up the delicate affinities which bind societies 
together; but even when their victory is gained, they 
not unfrequently find themselves greatly exhausted, 
.both in their personal power and in their relative in- 
fluences. 

We are aware of the fact that some have the convic- 
tion that a portion of the ministry of the country have 
greatly demoralized their power, as well as diminished 
the numbers in their congregations, by the part they 
took in the revolutionary commotions wiiicli have so 
recently shaken our Government to her foundations. 
In this conviction they no doubt are at least partially 
sustained by the general moral appearances of the coun- 
try. But then all such persons should remember that 
w^e have, in these years, passed through the darkest 
national cloud, and endured the crudest baptism of 
blood any nation ever realized. It was a death storm 
of fire whose kindled flames scorched the very life of 



181 



our nation, and swept to the grave^ prematurely^ mil- 
lions of our countrymen. 

In such a crisis of war and death^ Ave may well won- 
der that the evils were not even greater than they were. 
But, thank God, the storm is past, and we stand a 
nation still. The bitter cup has been tasted to its 
dregs, and the dead of the storm have all been hid 
away in the grave. 

It was a war, a wild war, of kindred affinities, where 
passion and ambition, pride and chivalry, met in their 
deadliest conflicts ; and though it more than half ex- 
hausted the Republic, it is to be hoped that the patriot- 
ism of our people, and the piety of our churches, may 
again vindicate our national destiny to a higher power 
and purity than w^e have ever yet attained. 

Such thoughts and sentiments as these were often, 
during the war, and before it, uttered by the venerable 
Havens, as his proud and patriotic heart was moved by 
the stirring agitations around him. The native fervor 
of his spirit would not permit him to look on such a 
conflict unconcerned; and though he was an old man, 
and retired from the active field of the ministry, he 
often declared- that the confederated Union of the 
States, unbroken and indissoluble, was his living senti- 
ment, and that it should be incorporated in his dying 
prayer. 

Xo man loved his country with a stronger devotion 
than Father Havens. He had learned in his youth the 
stories of patriotism exhibited by the heroes of ^76, and 
the same fire had been kindled in his own bosom, 
wdien mingling with the Indian hunters who had passed 



182 



through the fiery ordeals of our western borders, and 
as he moved up to manhood this patriotic fire burned 
the brighter when he saw what his country was in the 
purity of its Republican elements and in the grand ex- 
tent of its territory. 

In his political faith, Mr. Havens, like most of his 
brethren in the Conference, was a Whig; and though 
firm and decided in his party principles, as far as he 
had studied them, he was, nevertheless, often the sup- 
porter at the ballot-box of those who widely differed 
with him. The counsel of Shakspeare was fully devel- 
oped in his political integrity : 

Let all the ends thou aimest at 

Be thy Country's, thy God's, and Truth's." 

These were the governing elements of his character, 
and to these great ends he willingly offered his devo- 
tions at any shrine. The virtue of mere names, he 
was well aware, was often doubtful, and on this account 
he felt it, at times, to be his duty to scratch'^ or 
split his ticket, particularly when some one he knew 
was on the opposite side. 

On one occasion he met J udge Logan on the streets 
of Rushville, and after the usual salutations of the day, 
he said : 

I hear, Judge, that you are a candidate again.'^ 
Well, yes. Father Havens,^^ responded the Judge, 
^^lam.'^ 

Well, who is going to run against you?" he asked. 
The Judge gave the name of his probable opponent, 
when Father Havens ejaculated: 

"Humph! I don^t like either of you; but, Judge,^^ 



183 



he added, ^' if you can't get a better man to run against 
you, I suppose I Avill have to vote for you, and you 
know that will be a bitter pilL*' 

The venerable itinerant voted for the Judge, and he 
was elected, and when lie next sav/ Judge Logan, he 
said to him : 

Judge, I voted for you, the other day; but I did it 
on the principle of ' where there are two evils, choose 
the least and now I hope I have not done wrong, and 
if I find out that I have, it is the last vote you will 
ever get at my hands.'' 

When Governor Samuel Bigger was a candidate for 
re-election to that office, in 1843, Mr. Havens met him 
on one of the streets of Indianapolis, and, as they had 
long been neighbors, the greeting was, of course, as 
frank as it was cordial. But as Father Havens wanted 
lo touch up the Governor, he said to him : Governor 
Bigger, I always liked you as a Judge, and I do not 
know that I have anything against you as a Governor, 
but I confess I do not feel much like voting for you 
again on account of your Presbyterian bigotry. I 
know you never had any love for the Methodists, and 
if I vote for you this time, which I now expect to 
do, I want you. Governor, to understand that I shall 
do so purely because I believe that you are honest in 
spite of your bigotry." 

Governor Bigger laughed heartily at the frankness 
of Father Havens, and asked him if he didn't remem- 
ber of his often coming to hear him preach in prefer- 
ence to the Presbyterian ministers. 

Well, Governor," responded the sarcastic and can- 



184 



did old itinerant^ ^^I believe you have frequently been 
in my congregations^ but I know you are not a Metho- 
dist, and I am a little afraid/^ he added^ with a pierce 
of his eye, *'that you are not even as good a Presby- 
terian as you might be.''^ 

^'That^s so, that\s so^ Father Havena/^ was the hon- 
est response of the Governor ; and, bidding each other 
good by, they parted from that half-jocular greeting 
never to see each other's faces in the flesh again. 

Governor Bigger's sudden demise, a few brief weeks 
after this interview, and which was so deeply lamented 
over the State^ was most sincerely lamented by Father 
Havens also, for he had long known him and his 
excellent lady as among his best Presbyterian friends. 

The v€ry positive Methodism of Father Havens 
sometimes allowed him to suspicion others in the 
liberality of their sentiments, but then, he was in his 
religion, like he was in his patriotism, somewhat jeal- 
ous of any man's consistency when he heard of any 
illiberal dereliction. 

He believed that the true lover of his country, like 
the true lover of his God, was derelict, if he suffered 
his selfishness to over-top his moral sentiments, or in 
any way to interfere with the free progress of religious 
or public institutions. 

His country^s w^elfare, in association with the high 
interests of the public morals, had always called out 
his honest and frank devotions; and while his guard- 
ian eye was chiefly fixed on the moral status of the 
country, he was ever deeply concerned in regard to 



185 



any and everything that involved either its stability 
or national purity. 

Though opposed to slavery as a civil institution ot 
tlie land^ he was never^ in a political sense, what was 
termed ^^an abolitionist;*^ for he was not in favor of 
either rash legislation, or of ultra measures. So far as 
this^ or any other evib existed, he believed that the 
thing would cure itself; that right would ultimately 
triumph^ and that whatever of darkness or cloud might 
gather over the government, that God w^ould remove 
it in his own good time, if the people would repent 
and humble themselves before him. 

His faith in the Divine government was as strong 
as it was direct ; for he had taken his cue from the Old 
Testam.ent chiefly, and his ideal of moral nationality 
was based upon Jewish history^ as set forth in the 
sacred Scriptures, 

The theory of our own government always had his 
most sincere confidence^ because he believed that its basis 
of equalization and moral justice were founded on the 
divine records^ and his faith was, that as long as the 
Holy Bible is regarded in its moral precepts and penal 
sanctions^ the Republic will bid defiance to its proud- 
est foes. 

Meeting him shortly after the terrible fight of Bull 
Run, in the summer of 1861, Ave found him seemingly 
more sad and desponding than we had ever seen him 
before. The wild terror of that fearful defeat of our 
Union forces had partially passed from our mind, and 
we were not prepared to appreciate the cause of his 
evident depression. Upon our interrogation of the 



186 

reasons for his despondency^ he spoke about as fol- 
lows : 

^^For the last few days^ I have been regretting, 
more deeply than I ever have in my life, the condi- 
tion of the country.. It seems to me/' he continued, 
^Hhat our sky is growing darker and darker every 
day. Lincoln doesn't seem to know what he ought to 
do, and the prospect now is that our government will 
be destroyed, and if it is, it will throw back the wheels 
of civil liberty and of free governments a hundred 
years. 

^^I can not see," said he, ^^any way that we can 
consent to the independence of the South, with either 
honor or consistency; and, yet, I do not know but we 
will have to do it to save us from annihilation. The 
men of the South are as brave as the men of the 
North, and God only knows how this thing is going 
to end.'^ 

The patriotic heart of the brave old moral veteran 
felt deeply touched at the delicate and threatening 
condition of our national affairs; and though he was 
too far advanced in years himself to participate per- 
sonally in the fearful struggle, he could but look upon 
the conflict with the saddest emotions. 

If the sun of his country's honor and glory had to 
set in blood amidst the raging storm of an internecine 
war, more terrible, on this account, than the devour- 
ing desolations of the Furies themselves, he felt that 
liberty would be swept from the earth, and that even 
the foundation pillars of Christianity itself would have 
nowhere to stand. To the old men of the country 



187 



that lamentable contest of brothers of the same kith 
and kin was, no doubt, more mournful and sad than 
it was to any others. Such, at least, appeared to be 
the sentiment and feeling, both living and dying, of 
the venerable man of God of whom we hear speak. 



188 



CHAPTER XIX. 

HIS ORTHODOXY. 

Soundness of faith is said to be the only reliable 
foundation of substantial character. This at least has 
been the teachings of our churches^ and as a general 
thing, they have all held to it with an uncomprom- 
ising devotion^ such as time could not change^ or death 
destroy. 

The phases of theology have been so numerous in 
human writings^ that Bible truth has often been 
obscured^ and many have so far fallen into error, as to 
be designated skeptics instead of Christians. 

On these points, most churches have been especially 
particular^ as well as suspicious. They have watched 
wdth an eagle eye the slightest aberrations in this direc- 
tion, and even men of talent and genius and popular 
eloquence have at different periods been placed upon 
the rack, as being of doubtful, if not of dangerous 
orthodoxy. 

Nothing has ruined ministerial standing more effect- 
ually^ or ^vith a swifter certainty^ than hetrodox 
proclivities, for such inclinations have been deemed 
to be not only sinful, but destructive of the peace and 
unity of the Church. 

For brethren to differ was to divide. They could 
not live in the same house or drink of the same holy 
cup unless they saw eye to eye. Differences in faiths 
have made divisions in churches, until these institu- 



189 



tions stand, in many instances, more as monuments 
of theological confusion than as land marks of the old 
primitive Christian doctrine. 

Most of these differences, however, ^vhich have 
wrought these unhappy divisions, were not cardinal 
in the Christian faith, and it really Avould not have 

, mattered much which side the contestants fell upon. 

j r Church history shows us that most of these divisions 
were the results of differences in church government, 
rather than of theological notions. Assumptive eccle- 
siastical laws, in connection with their injurious 
execution by iuconsiderate dignitaries, have made 
come-outers in almost every church organization 
in existence — while in general orthodoxy the most of 
them have remained conservatively respectable. 

The doctrines of the Bible, as held by the Fathers, 
and as handed along down the ages, have been termed 
by pre-eminence our orthodox theology. ^Yhat they 
have taught has furnished the churches with their 

isystems of faith and order of moral economy, and if 
they had continued steadfast in their Bible reliances, 
the world would never have been thrown into ecclesi- 
astical confusion, or the Christian Church been torn 
into a thousand fragments. 

Whether the world is made better by these numerous 

^divisions has been doubted by the best divines of 
Christendom, as they have been compelled to acknowl- 
edge, that the glory of Christian unity has been 
sacrificed at the shrine of ecclesiastical ambition. The 
standard of orthodoxy has consequently lost much ot 
its genuine practical power, and the religious world 



190 

has largely swung off on the hinges of an eclectic 
theology which reflects but indifferently upon the true 
and old time theories. 

These aberrations have not been^ as some would 
suppose^ the instituted systems of an uneducated min- 
istry — for in most instances such men are apt to follow 
rather than lead. The new departures have generally 
found their first impulse in educated brains^ if not in: 
regenerated hearts. Men of thought and education 
have broken away from the leading strings of their 
church authority^ and rather than submit to the trial 
of fraternal conflict^ they have set up for themselves- 
on a new role. ^ jj 

It is not what Christian doctrines are^ that has madei 
these divisions and church alienations^ but what men 
have tried to make them. New theories of religious 
doctrines have been of almost annual birth^ and the old 
land marks have been pulled up and driven down 
again so frequently, that the ancient boundaries have 
grown so dim that but few can now discover them. 

The 39 Articles of the Church of England which '( 
form the basis, with only two exceptions, of the Meth- j 
odist Episcopal Church, have held the body together i! 
in doctrines with a cohesive power that may well be ] 
looked upon as being wonderful. In all the conten- ^ 
tions and divisions of the Methodist family both in 3 
Europe and America, there has never been a single ) 
separation because of doctrinal conflict. All have i 
been agreed on its doctrines. Government has been <\ 
the difficulty — in connection with the administration 3 
of it, and to these causes may all her depletions be | 



191 



attributed. In moral principle and doctrinal teachings 
the families of Methodism are a unit to-day throughout 
the world. 

It was this universal doctrinal unity which gave 
Father Havens his highest Methodist confidence. He 
had often heard of ministers of other denominations 
differing with one another, and preaching a strange 
theology ; but, among Methodist preachers, he knew 
that such a thing was a rare and strange occurence. 

Taken in connection w^ith the fact that a large num- 
ber of the Methodist ministry have been wdiat is styled 
nneducaU^d men, it is somewhat remarkable that they 
have been so universally true to the faith and doctrines 
of the Church. 

With most of them the Bible was their daily book 
of lessons. It w^as ^^the charter of their faith and the 
record of their redemption and from it they gathered 
their religious convictions. The writings of Wesley 
and Fletcher, of Clarke and Watson, furnished their 
doctrinal comments with such clearness and power as 
no other books have, ever excelled. 

The Theological Institutes of Richard Watson con- 
tain the most thorough and exhaustive expositions of 
the doctrines, morals and institutions of the Christian 
faith, perhaps, ever written by any theologian the 
Church has yet produced. Nearly every Methodist 
preacher of Europe and America has read the work, 
while thousands have made it the chief study of their 
years. 

j With such doctrinal guides as these, Methodist 
j preachers could not well float off* into error. The 



I 



192 



arguments and exemplifications of Bible theology are 
so clearly and satisfactorily sustained by them that but 
few who have ever read them have fallen from the 
faith. 

With such a mind as Father Havens possessed, an 
unorthodox aberration was barely possible ; for though 
he was unlearned in the schools, and even far from 
being a general reader^ his brave and practical com- 
mon sense made him cautious and conservative in 
assuming his positions in theology, as well as in action. 
What he preached he believed; and he examined his 
points of doctrine always with a prayerful an€ careful 
thought, which admitted of no deception, and conse- 
quently never permitted him to drop down into any 
theological error. 

Aiming in his ministry to reform men chiefly, his 
subjects referred to the duties of life, rather than to 
their religious speculations. It was not his purpose at 
any time to merely convert the brains of men. Such 
work as this he left to others. He understood the doc- 
trines of Christianity to refer to the morals of man- 
kind, and not to their mere intellectual developments. 
Hence, the most of his sermons struck at men^s hearts 
instead of their admiration, and he bore down upon 
them, like a brave man of war, with the high resolve 
and determined purpose of bearing off the flag of the 
enemy in every conflict. 

Convictive truths were the chief weapons of his pul- 
pit power, and when he stood before the people, he 
poured upon them the ^^hot shot^^ of the gospel as one 
who believed his commission was from heaven. Sim- 



193 



pie truth — vital and effective — he well knew was the 
chief instrument of gospel power among any people^ 
and it was this knowledge to which he always so 
tenaciously adhered^ that made him so distinguished 
as a sound divine as well as a safe moral guide. 

With the speculative^ the sensational^ and egotistical 
gospel philosophies^ he had but little acquaintance^ as 
he never made them his study^ or placed any confidence 
in their grace or efficiency. Whether in his own 
church, or any other^ he gave them no encouragement. 
They did not meet his style, or open to him a single 
avenue of gospel usefulness^ and he^ therefore^ counted 
them as but dust in the balance. 

What was termed heresy^ he always opposed with 
a' zeal which at times was thought to be even severe, 
because the exposures he made of them w^ere both sar- 
castic and annihilating. Indeed^ he winced at nothing, 
as he felt that it was not meet that he should do so, 
particularly when the true faith was endangered. On 
such occasions his nervous excitement gave spirit to 
his efforts/ and made him the hero of the hour. 

He knew he held the commission of a gospel senti- 
nel, and he allowed no man to cross the line of ortho- 
doxy in his presence with impunity. If he was even 
a very Goliah in his pretensions, he would attack him 
in defense of the truth ; and, when he did so, his 
antagonist had but one alternative, and that was to 
make good his retreat. 

At one of his camp meetings, in the White Water 
country, he learned that a brother minister of another 
faith and order, had been making strenuous and pro- 
17 



194 



tracted efforts to teach the people that without baptism 
by immersion there could be no hope of salvation. 
This theory had its advocates^ who were teaching the 
system with a zeal and boldness which but few men of 
any persuasion could excel. 

In his sermon on Sabbath mornings Father Havens 
made a tilt at this rather ultra-fluidic theology^ and in 
his peculiar style^ showed his audience that the theory 
was not sufficient for every emergency. 

Seeing the Hon. Oliver H. Smith in the congrega- 
tion^ he made him a special case^ to show the utter 
impracticability of the watery salvation. After giving 
his general arguments to expose the position^ he said 
to the assembly : 

^' Here is a man you all know^ who is sick^ Hon. 
Oliver H. Smith. He is not religious — but on his 
sick bed he becomes anxious about his souPs salvation. 
He wishes to be saved^ and he asks his friends around 
him^ What shall I do to be saved ? They tell him he 
must be baptized for the remission of his sins^ and 
with the same breath they tell him also^ that immersion 
alone is baptism. But he is sick— very dangerously 
sick^ and too weak to be taken from his bed^ and the 
question comes up^ what shall be done? A runner is 
started after the preacher^ but he has gone away^ and 
is no where to be found. The case becomes a critical 
one^ and Mrs. Smith and her family and neighbors are 
around the bed of the dying man — weeping in the 
bitterness of their sorrow and deeply lamenting the 
sad fate of the husband and father^ who will die and 
be lost forever^ not because Christ did not die for 



195 



him — not because the Lord is not willing to save him— ' 
but because there is no human administrator to admin- 
ister the saving ordinance of baptism. 

" Eiders are sent in every direction to hunt up the 
preacher. Mr. Smith is dyings and his soul will be 
lost forever^ if some proper administrator is not soon 
found. Wild with grief ^ and bowed to the dust in 
bitter and hopeless lamentations the friends stand 
around the bed of the distinguished dving statesman^ 
without a ray of glimmering light to cheer them in 
their hopes of his salvation. Sincere as he is^ and 
anxious to be saved as he may be^, the poor penitent 
man dies and is lost^ lost, lost forever^ just because 
there is no human arm to save him.^^ 
- The vast assembly were deeply excited, and showed 
their indignancy of the doctrine of salvation by vrater, 
instead of by faith, and as Mr. Smith, the imaginary 
sick man, was in the congregation, highly enjoying the 
demonstrative argument of the stern old hero preacher, 
every eye was fixed upon him. The stroke was con- 
sidered a masterly one, and as Mr. Smith remarked^ 
after the services were over, ^' Xo man in Indiana but 
Father Havens could have carried his point with such 
skill and shrewxlness.^^ 

Some years after this the AYhitewater country was 
greatly agitated with the doctrine of Millerism, that 
the end of the world was to take place sometime in the 
spring or summer of 1843. Many seemed to be falling 
in with the sensational theory, and the public mind 
was wonderfully stirred in regard to the doctrine. Quite 
a number of local preachers of very respectable abili- 



196 



ties were carried away Avith the grand apocalyptic 
discovery^ and as it is apt to be in all cases of wisdom 
above that which is written/^ these men became impa- 
tient of rebuke and ^vith great effrontery were willing 
to face the world in defense of their judgment theory. 
Some of them broke off their church connection^ as 
the orders came from headquarters for all who wished 
to ascend w^ith Christ to " come out of Babylon/^ 
which term was applied by them to all the churches of 
the land^ without regard to history^ character^ or ante- 
cedents. 

To meet these deluded people^ Father Havens found 
it no easy task. They were full of self-conceit^ and 
so much determined on being deceived tliat no argu- 
ment could reach them. The thing was sensational^ 
and they fastened vipon it with the most obstinate 
tenacity. ^^The year 1843 was to close the history of ^ 
time.^* This was their belief;, and in its advocacy they ' 
spent their days and nights in trying to make converts | 
with as much apparent sincerity and zeal, as if they 
had had an especial commission^ to wind up old 
Nature's history. 

It was soon discovered, however, by the more intel- 
ligent opponents of their wild theory that time alone 
would cure them of their malady, and on this account, 
as Father Havens once informed us, ^^he did not feel 
like wasting powder to kill it. It would die of itself 
from the statute of limitation. So, indeed, it did; 
but, yet, many of its miserable advocates were so dis- 
appointed by the failure, that they were of no more 
use to their churches during the rest of their years. 



197 



The next delusion following that of Millerism^ was 
the theory of ^'The Soul Sleepers/' as they were 
,j termed^ who taught ^^that the soul sleeps with the 
f body in the grave^ and that at the second coming of 
Christy the righteous shall awake' to the resurrection of 
j life^ and that the souls of the wicked will be annihi- 
I lated forever and ever/^ Many of the Millerites run 
f into this latter theory, and still linger there yet. They 
are, it seems, infatuated with the marvelous, and car- 
ried away with any sort of doctrine that will throw 
contempt upon the old orthodoxy of the churches. 
These heterodox departures they endure with a resig- 
nation and submission well worthy of even the purest 
orthodoxy. They seem, indeed, not to suspect them- 
selves of any heretical bearings, or to dream that they 
are not in the line of the richest vein of Bible phi- 
losophy. 

Meeting one of them one day. Father Havens asked 
him how he would like to live in the world of anni- 
hilation ^^Live!'^ exclaimed the astonished Soul 
Sleeper; those who shall meet vrith that sentence 
will not live at all. They will be as dead as if they 
■ had never been born.^^ Is that so 'V^ Father Havens 
inquired. ^'Why, certainly. That is what the Bible 
teaches,^' was the responsive assurance. Well, then,^^ 
said Father Havens, with an audible sigh, " I pity 
you, for I have k lown you a good many years, and I 
can not remember of any good you have ever done, 
and I don't see, for the life of me, how you can escape 
the destiny of annihilation. Then, looking sideways 
at the somewhat startled victim before him, he added, 



198 



in a little stronger tone of sarcasm, If the Lord can 
save such a clo-nothing fellow as you from annihila- 
tion^ there will certainly be very few others that he 
need pass by/^ This, of course, was an argument 
ad hominum, but it was, doubtless, in this case, more 
eflFectual than a day^s debate would have been wdth 
such a character. The strict adherence of Father 
Havens to the old land marks of the orthodox the- 
ology of the ages, gave him the just claims of being a 
theologian, and placed him among his peers in his 
conference as one of the pillars of the temple. Nature 
had endowed him with clear powers of perception, and 
experience and observation, had given him the advan- 
tages of stability. Thought had made him familiar 
with truth, and the devotions of his life constituted 
him a consistent worshiper. 



199 



CHAPTER XX. 

HIS PECULIAE OEATORY 

The cant of the pulpit, and the sing-song monotony 
of many in the gospel ministry, have often been the 
subject of sport and ridicule even among the religious. 
The deep sepulchral tone, or the equally pious whine 
of quaint gospel teachers have given to the profession 
in many instances a conaedian character, and furnished 
irreligious jokers with some of their best themes of 
ridicule. The old idea of speaking only as the Lord 
gave them utterance/'^ totally regardless of all rules of 
rhetoric or oratory^ and without a single touch of any 
sort of natural elocution, has in frequent instances^ 
brought the services of the pulpit into contempt, and 
opened the way for all classes of irreverence and 
infidelity. 

Manner, jesture, and tone, are all important in the 
sacred desk, as they, indeed, are, in all public efforts 
of speech ; but more particularly, as we think, are 
they imperiously demanded in the pulpit efforts of the 
ministry. 

The expositions of gospel teaching appeal to the 
faith of men rather than to their senses, and the man- 
ner of making them, becomes essential, as listeners to 
the ministry— in their frequent attendance upon the 
same man, are naturally led to a closer and severer 
criticism of his efforts. 

Oratory, like music^ may be criticised by many who 



200 



have no capacity for it themselves, and who know 
little or nothing either of its rules or- order. They 
look at the speaker himself, to see what he says m his 
appearances, manners and jestures; and they listen to 
his voice as they would hearken to music, to catch, as 
far as possible, the spirit of its power and to drink in 
the divinity of its inspiration. 

In the early days in the west, it was common for all 
classes to go out to hear preaching, and more particu- 
larly, when any minister of repute was going to preach. 
The man drew them out, even when they cared but 
little for the solemnities of religious worship, and it 
was not uncommon for the preacher to have his whole 
congregation in tears, while he held them with the 
power of his voice, and the spirit of his almost inspired 
eloquence, as if they had no capacity for resistance. 

The old war veterans of our early pioneer Mis- 
sionary work in the west, had no college cants, and 
they v/ere, seemingly, as ignorant of the mechanical 
tropes and figures of the schools, as if such inventions 
had never been known. Their style was that of nature 
rather, than of art. Indeed it had about it too much 
of the old natural divinity for any sort of artificial 
imputations ; and its daring independence would have 
set at defiance and held in contempt the Aveak and 
namby pamby styles, so common in the pulpits of the 
present cla^. It was the boldness of their style, in 
fact, that gave it its greatest majesty— for they made 
no consultations- with flesh and blood to obtain their 
oratorial key, or to learn how far they might go in 
reproving sin, or in warring against evils of any cast 



201 



or character. Thev went before the people as God^s 
ambassadors, and not as mere ecclesiastical hirelings. 
What they said was uttered fearlessly, without regard 
to popular fame, or the weakness of clap trap applause. 
Iso threats could intimidate them, and no flatteries 
could purchase them. They were a race of pioneer 
Apostles as heroic as the primitives, and perhaps but 
little behind them either in the ardor of their spirit^ 
or in the wonders of their accomplishments. Occu- 
pying the different fields of district and circuit labor, 
they appeared not to care where the Conference sent 
them, just so they might have some place, where they 
could make full proof of their ministry. 

The very moral position of these men was eloquent, 
and their mission was considered divine, by nearly 
every one ; consequently, v/herever they went the 
people by hundreds gave them audience, and on this 
account they felt their responsibility was such as could 
not be measured. 

It was indeed wonderful to witness the great orato- 
rical powers of some of these men, when they stood 
up before the people on popular occasions. Their 
straightened forms assumed the loftiest dignity, while 
their countenances would become radiant v/ith the 
inspiration of their chosen themes, and their voices, 
growing musical with their eloquent utterances, would 
ring out upon the vast congregations assembled to hear 
them, like the bugle blasts of some champion gladiator. 

The camp meeting scenes often witnessed under the 
preaching of such men as Bascom and Waterman, 
Bigelow and Finley, Stamper and Christie and hun- 
16 



dreds of others wliose honored names have been made 
immortal in the annals of western Methodism^ gave to 
the itinerancy its highest prestige^ and added to tlie 
membership and ministry of the Church many thou- 
sands of its brightest characters. 

It was among such men as these that Mr. Havens 
spent the earlier years of his ministry^ and it could 
not well be expected that such examples of pulpit 
brilliancy would fail to give their impress to such a 
mind as he possessed, particularly^ as it was in the 
open field of observation^ that he obtained most of that 
eminent education, wdiich gave him such distinction^ 
and made his name a household word in so many 
thousands of families throughout the State. 

Indeed, nearly all Mr. Havens knew^ had been 
gleaned along through the travel of life; and as he 
had no master in science, neither had he any in ora- 
tory. The school of nature had ahvays been his semi- 
nary of instruction, and the lessons he learned there 
had given him his highest accomplishments. There- 
fore, as an orator, he was both simple and natural. 
No effort at display was ever visible in his perform- 
ances, and the chief features of his oratory were sin- 
cerity, earnestness, determined boldness and exceed- 
ingly frank utterances. He had a taste for the poetic 
and the beautiful; but he was charey in treading the 
sublimated pathways of any such regions. jSTone knew 
better than he did the strength of his sail in strange 
waters. With him the themes of the gospel were the 
only burden of his ministry, and to these he gave the 



203 



thoug-hts of his life^ as to their fearless vindication^ he 
gave the hibors of his years. 

The natural earnestness of his style gave to his ser- 
mons the character of an honest and candid sincerity 
which^ with his heroic boldness and eminent com- 
manding abilities^ made him an acknowledged, cham- 
pion among his brethren in the ministry, as well as a 
recognized leader among all the people. 

As a man of eloquence^ Mr. Havens made no pre- 
tensions^ although he often was eloquent, and some- 
times even sublime. His chief aim was to make his 
sermons plain and practical. He appeared not to 
think of himself in the pulpit^ but only of the people, 
and his deepest struo-a-les v\'ere how to g:et at them with 
the strong arm of convicting power. In making his 
appeals to his congregations, he used no clap-trap or 
^' high-sounding words. His was the style of a plain, 
commanding argument, of an earnest and fervent zeal, 
which came from his heart as much as from his head, 
and it v»'as this frank and honest sincerity, doubtless, 
which gave him such success in his ministry. 

The Bible, being recognized by him as the only 
reliable charter of his faith, he gathered from it alone 
the theology of his sermons, as well as the style of his 
language. Not that he made up his sermons from 
scriptural quotations, for this he never did. His style 
of language was his own; but as it was modeled after 
that which was divine, it was, of course, simple and 
terse, and often both comprehensive and beautiful. 

But few ministers excelled him in the fervency of 
his oratory; for he was ahvays in earnest, and drove 



2(H 

Ills i'(>vcv:\ (or inslcjid of (ll. plny. Ind^'^'d, lie 

IijmI a, |»('<Mili:ir l(>v<' lor Ijold, ('n(',r^;(!l,ic, ;ui(l (liiriKist 
pniJuJiiM/.'; ilinJ- sort or|)iil|)il, onifory wlii(4i hikfis 
l<in|i.(lorr> of* rl< iicss hy ,-ilorm, niid drives l lic powcr.s 
()( evil l)('(or<! il< lil<': l-lu; (JcsLroyin^' lmrri(!;m(', wliirjj 
defies ()|)|)(/sil ion, Jis il, hw(;('J)H orj lo ils ddsiJny. 

1 1. WMH I his Ih^Ii r'c^'.'ird (or nii cMrnesi iniiiisl ry 
vvlii' h I(i;m1<' liiin so cjiriK'sl, jind ((■[•venj, -so (^iier/^clie 
jiikI hih*/C/(!Hh('mI. a i in in;.' :dw;iys lo Ix- honest, ms well 
UH sineere, Ik' li:id l>iil, lilil(^ ("julli in ;i niinisTry oC ;niy 
I<ifid lli;il oj»( r.'iled (or mere sliow, or 1 luil, ex isled on 
l lie eniolnnienis or llie iniiij/ined di<iiiil y o(" I lie (dliec. 
Kinply mini; lei i;d dis|)l:iy, liowev^^r riehlv il. mi,i.dil \><' 
:is; oeialed with personal prelensions, or with pr'oCessed 
He'lioljU'shi|), iM^ver uiiviicial mneh jiUenlJon, or held 
jiny hi^di phiee in his esleetn. 1 1 is love w:is Cor ( lie 
re;d in life, :ind il, vv:is heejiiise, of I his he |)refer red 
|)hiin :ind e:irnesl, lo pomjxms ;ind pr'elenlioiis 

mi nisi ry . 

In llie r:inl\S of or.'iiory he w:is nior(t ;i, son of 
ihinider" lh:tn he vv:is of eonsohi 1 ion, :ind lo ihis <^l;iss 
in ihe miiii;;l,ry il, w:is n:il,iirnl for hitn l,o ^'ive his 
pr<'feren('es. Slill, h(^ had for minisl,(^rs of olJier sly les 
oforaloi y lhan his own, even vc^ry highest n^i^ards, 
for- he well knew lhal all iJiese differenl /classes werc^ 
needed in earryin.1' on lh<' wor-k,and in hiiildin^' np 
iJnr (linreh, and was always ready l,o re(;(:ive iJu^m 
will) all dne respeel,, and lo reeo^in/(^ fJiem as an hon- 
ored portion of ihe (Jlini'eh of (iod. 

We one(^ heard him say To a, hi'olher minisler, I 
a,m always please<l l,o hear yon |)rea(di. Yon ;.dve ine 



205 

somethiiig to think about — something that sets my 
head to working. You are/^ he continued/^ a thinker, 
and I lilve to hear such men^ for they often show up 
the moral beauties of religion in a light which the 
common people would perhaps never see if it were not 
for such sermons.*^ 

Mr. Havens was mistalien in himself in regard to 

! his education^ for he was always impressed Avith the 
belief that his educational defi 'icnicirs had so ham- 
pered his powers of thought that he could not claim to 
be a thinker.^^ In this inference he was undoubtedly 
in error, for but few ministers we have ever known, 
were better^ or even deeper thinkers^ than he was 
himself. His thoughts^ to be sure^ were chiefly of 
the practical caste— but they were nevertheless worthy 
of distinction even in the line of scholarship, for they 
were always sound and true, and not unfreqiiently 
partook of the deepest profundity. This he evinced 
in his sermons frequently and often in his conversation; 
and to this cause^ more than to his fiery oratory^ may 
we ascribe the fact that lie was l:)ut seldom ever known 

I to preach a dull or prosy sermon. 

It was never sensational or speculative theology 
which gave him power over his congregations — but 

' the plain practical philosophy of Bible precepts — such 
as he gathered from the infinite mine of truth, and 
which he always gave out to the people with such force 
and earnestness. In this grand source of preceptive 
thought Mr. Havens had, doubrless^ earned as honor- 
able a diploma of Doctor of Divinity, as nine tenths 
of the distingui.-hed clergy who wear this honor. 



206 



Nature makes some men giants in thought as well 
as in oratory, in defiance of the schools — and in this 
class may we justly place such a minister as he was, for 
though he never studied elocution in his life, he was 
nevertheless an orator of no mean grade, and if he 
lacked in scholarship, he was not deficient in educated 
thought, or sublime sentiment. His soul had drunk 
largely of the crystal founts of Sinai and Calvery, and 
from these pure fountains of philosophic infinity, h.e 
had imbibed as rich intellectual treasures, as philoso- 
pher or scholar ever drank from the doubtful waters 
of the Pierian Spring. A similar conviction must 
have pervaded the mind of the Bard of Scotland, or 
he would never have written — - 

" What's a' your jargon o' your schools ? 
Your Latin names for horns an' stools ; 
If honest Nature made you fools, 

What sairs your grammars? 
Ye'd better ta'en up spades and shools, 
Or knappin-hammers. 

A set o' dull, conceited hashes, 
Confuse their brains in college classes ! 
They gang in stirks, and come out asses, 

Plain truth to speak ; 
An' syne they think to climb Parnassus 

By dint o' Greek ! 

Gi'e me a spark o' Natures fire, 

That's a' the learning I desire ; 

Then though I drudge through dub an' mire, 

At pie ugh or cart, 
My Muse, thougii hamely in attire, 

May touch the heart." 

It was this " spark o^ nature^s fire/^ which gave to 



207 



,! Mr. Havens^ in connection with the higher and purer 

I celestial fire^ which he had received through grace^ and 
ji which made him the equal of scholars, the compeer of 
f orators^ and in many respects a model among even the 

II masters in the ministry. 

To become a disciple of thought without the process 
of education^ and to rise to the highest oratorical 
[ distinction^ independent of all instructions in the arts 
\ of elocution^ constitute an advancement in intellectual 
life such as is not often made, and even where it is 
attained the evidence is 'prima facie that the elemen- 
tary character itself must have been of nature's highest 
and purest mould. 

That Mr. Havens was an orator, was readily admit- 
ted by the thousands who heard him preach, but how 
he attained to this accomplishment was only known to 
those who were familiar with his history, and who knew 
him well as a man. Among all such it was always 
understood that his style of oratory was peculiarly his 
own ; that he neither obtained it from books, nor from 
men. For, starting out in the ministry with all the 
im.pulsive ardor of a soul fired by the grace of God, he 
stopped not to confer with flesh and blood, but feeling, 
as he honestly did, that he was a called embassador to 
preach the unsearchable wisdom of Jesus Christ to a 
lost and ruined world, he entered upon the work vnth. 
that heroic zeal, which marked the spirit of his age, 
and distinguished so many of the preachers of his day. 

What he was in these respects did not constitute 
him sui generis^ for there were many others like him — 
men who had volunteered in the great field of the 



208 



itinerancy^, to cultivate it faithfully and fearlessly^ 
without regard to AThat they would get . for their sup- 
port, or where would be the field of their labors. The 
very enlistment of these men was heroic, and gave to 
their mission the moral romance of a spiritual crusade^ 
which pales in the ashes of an expiring insignificance 
all the bloody crusades ever made against Jew or Infi- 
del^ Mohammedan or Atheist. 

Sounding the key notes of tlie gospel from the ram- 
parts of truth and a gracious spirituality, they lifted 
their voices with a burning zeal, whose fires, like those 
of Pentecost, were as visible as they were consuming. 
They knew no surrender of their positions, and bowed 
to no infallibility, but that of God himself. 

It was not language that made these men eloquent; 
nor was it the rhetoric of* the schools. It was Sinai^s 
thunder and Calvary^s love. It was the grand result 
of the inspiration of the hour — the direct display of 
that higher baptism which comes down upon the souls 
of men out of heaven, and which kills sin and breaks 
the hearts of the obdurate. It was this divine power 
which moved the people like the sweepings of the 
storm-king upon the face of the great deep. The 
effect was everywhere the evident movement of the 
power eternal ; and when the people beheld it, as it 
appeared to be wielded by these missionary embassa- 
dors, they kneAY not what to say. They heard it, and felt 
it, and could not stay away; and, though often for a 
time full of anger, their wildest passions soon melted 
before it to the humblest submission, and the march of 
the conc[ueror was like the shouts of the people when 
they tread the path of triumph as an army with banners. 



209 



CHAPTER XXI. 

• HIS OHIO COXFEEEES. 

Lifers earliest ties are often its strongest and most 
sacred. It is then that confidence is the strono^est and 
the more implicit, for the heart is tlien young and has 
not yet learned the calculating schemes of sinister 
interests. 

It is not usually the best to know too much of the 
world^s friendships. — for it is too often the case that 
distance alone lends enchantment to the view. 

Like the man who had the ax to grind^ many are 
exceedingly complacent as long as we turn the grind- 
stone for them. But their ax sharpened^ they at once 
assume the attitude of self reliance^ as if oih friend- 
ship would never again be needed. 

The uncalled for treachery of human friendships^ 
doubtless^ has done much to destroy our confidence in 
the integrity of our kind, and therefore it is natural 
for men^ as they grow older in years to have less confi- 
dence in professions and in the protfered atfections of 
the world around them. What they have experienced 
in the history of the past^ has chilled their affections, 
and the blandishments of policy henceforth become 
the only measure of their civili^ty. The coolness of 
etiquette regulates their associations instead of affec- 
tion, and doubt and distrust displace the simplicity of 
confidence, vrhile the heart is made to grow solicary, 
amid the desolations of its own loneliness. Even the 



210 



society of the ministry has not been exempt from such 
delinquencies — for it has often been evident even in 
the holier affinities, that we have these treasures in 
earthen vessels/' It is even here we see history 
repeating itself in imitation of Peter^s denial^ and not 
unfrequeiitly in the more glaring example of Judas 
himself. 

Nature's moral debility displays itself in spite of the 
sacred office and regardless of the higher integrities. 

The older I get^ the few^er seems to be the number of 
my friends/^ was once remarked to us by Father Havens 
himself, and we did not doubt but he felt all he said. 
The sun of his life w^as no longer in its zenith^ and 
the voice of the multitude no longer followed him. 
Though yet livings he felt that he belonged to a past 
age. The shadows of life's evening Avere fast gath- 
ering around him^ and he could not fail to recognize 
their obscuring mantle. 

To the men who drank so deeply of the genial 
waters and warm, cordial friendships every w^here found 
in the pioneer homes of the West, these transitions of 
life's apparent neglect, were doubtless severe and 
trying, because they had not been calculated upon, and 
consequently were not prepared for. 

But few^ ministers had a higher appreciation of a 
true friend than Mr. Havens. He had learned in early 
life their extreme value, and wdiere ever he found one, 
whom he could confidently trust, he w^ould frequently 
place himself in his hands and power, as a child trusts 
its own mother. He knew^ but little of duplicity in 
himself, and he scorned it in others. Nothing, indeed; 



•211 

made him more indignant' than the designing syco- 
phancy of a scheming aspirant. AVhen such a case 
came before him. he gave the subject no quarters^ but 
on the otlier hand, he frenuenrly administered to him 
ij such a rebuke as eiiher cured him of his folly, or 
taught him to try some other court for the success of 

his i^lea. 

J- 

The old style of triendships. which vrere honest and 
frank, simple and confiding, he had learned in the 
cabins of Kentucky and Ohio, among the people with 
whom he began his labors, and the inijjrint of their 
kindnesses v\'as on his heart to the dav of his death. 

Among the ministers of the Ohio Conference he was 
associated, in the first years of his itinerancy, with a 
number who subsequently attained to eminent distinc- 
tion in the Cliurch^ and with others who made such a 
record of usefulness as can never be forgotten. 

Of those who were admitted on trial in the Confer- 
ence with him in 1820^ Ave may particularly mention 
Alfred Brunson. Charles Thorn. James Jones, Daniel 
Limerick^ "\Villiaiu Simmons, and Zara H. Costin. 
"With these good names his own Avas associated in the 
very beginning of his Conference connection, and with 
some of these good men he formed, in after years, 
warm and abiding friendships, which were onlv severed 
by death itself. Of these ministers, AVilliam Simmons 
and Alfred Brunson^ alone, are' still living. AVith 
James Jones, IMr. Havens Avas associated for many 
years in the Indiana Conference; but from all the 

others he was senarated from the time he left the Ohio 
J. 

Conference. 



212 



His first appointment being to Salt Creek Circuit 
alone^ his Presiding Elcler^ Samuel West^ was that 
year his only ministerial associate; and when the good 
old man came round to his quarterly meetings^ his 
visits were like those of the angels^ for they were both 
cheering and encouraging^ as the venerable old apostle 
always spake words of kindness, and bid him not to 
fear any obstacle which might come in his way. 

The Ohio Conference at that period was the great 
Methodist field of the West, and it had among its 
members a number who were thought to be the equals 
of any preachers in the United States. Dr. Martin 
Ruter, John P. Durbin, Russell Bigelow, James 
Quinn, Allen Wiley, James B. Finley, and John 
Strange, may be named as among the ablest of the 
Conference, and with these Mr. Havens mingled with 
an unassuming sobriety, taking notes, as best he could^ 
and closely observing the spirit and character of every 
member of the Conference. 

The genius of the itinerancy, in those early days, 
partook largely of the heroic, for the men who chiefly 
directed the work were Brush College graduates, and 
they expected every recruit to their ranks should be 
ready to do valiant battle in any field which might be 
assigned him. 

Mr. Havens^ second year found him on the Straight 
Creek Circuit, with Greenbury R. Jones as bis Pre- 
siding Elder, who was a man of great power in the 
pulpit, and who, for many years, was distinguished as 
one of the ablest members of the Conference. Each 
year added to his acquaintance the names of men who 



213 



, were rapidly rising to moral power^ many of wliom^ in 
after years^ in different conferences, became heralds of 
renown, and made for themselves a name in Methodist 
history which will now never be obscured. 

j The third year of Mr. Havens^ itinerancy may be 

' set down, as one of the most significant of his life. 
His appointment was to Brush Creek Circuit, with 
Henry B. Bascom in charge — Greenbury R. Jones 
still remaining on the district. 

The colleague of Mr. Havens this year was one of 
the most eloquent pulpit orators of his age, and even 
at that period could have filled with inspiring com- 
mand any pulpit of the country. The year before 
Bascom had labored on the Hinkstone Circuit, in the 
Kentucky Conference — but as his father\s family lived 
in the bounds of the Brush Creek Circuit, he had 
asked for and received this appointment, as a special 
favor. Here on this large four weeks circuit, this able 
young divine labored on a promised salary of one 
hundred dollars for the year, which, however he did 
not get, and whenever he had a leisure day he worked 

I on the farm, or rather clearing, of his father, to do 
Avhat he could in helping to support the young and 
helpless family. The intimacy which grew up between 
Bascom and Havens, became like that of Jonathan 
and David. In many respects, they were in genius 
and character of the same kith and kin^ and being of 
the same high calling, and colleagues in the same 
work, they became allied to each other by the strong 

I ties of a common interest as well as by those of the 
higher fellowships. 



211 



Bascom's father was a poor man^ and in very indif- 
ferent health. But having a large femily^ it was one 
of the greatest concerns of his noble and eloquent son, 
to look after its support and prospective interests. 
Often when Mr. Havens came round to the Bascom 
neighborhood, he would find his colleague out in a 
clearing, stripped of his coat and vest, and working 
among the brush, as if the toils of the woodsman had 
been his only calling. 

It was this noble and self sacrificing spirit which 
gave Mr. Havens such exalted and abiding confidence 
in his colleaocue, and led him throup-h all the after 
years of his life to speak of him with the highest con- 
fidence and praise. 

Bascom^s style of eloquence was also greatly admired 
by Mr. Havens, for he saw that it was the bold utter- 
ance of a proud and manly nature, and had about it 
the captivating power of true and genuine eloquence. 

It was not a matter of wonder that the hearts of 
the two became as one, for in many respects they were 
strikingly similar, both in their personal fearlessness 
and in their manly independence. 

The year was of course a pleasant one, as well as 
one of great success. At its close the parting of the 
two itinerants was as the parting of brothers. They 
had lived long enough together, for each to know the 
others true manhood — and though they only met 
casually in subsequent life, until death came to bear 
the eloquent Bascom to his grave their hearts beat in 
unison as loyal brothers. 

The next year Bascom was sent to Steubenville, and 



215 

Mr. Havens Avas appointed to the Seioto Cireuit, Avith 
Yrilliani Simmons as his assistant. 

Mr. Havens still retained his old heroic Presiding 

I Elder, Eev. Greensbury R. Jones^ Avhom he had 
learned to love^ as one who might justly be counted 
among the noblest of his race. Coming to his Circuit 

I once a quarter^ vrhere usually he had the entire officiary 
of the charge — together with hundreds of others — 
to preach to. this venerable Avar-veteran AA'Ould sound 
his bold trumpet of alarm in the ears of sinners^ and 
expound the deep mysteries of gospel truth to belicA^ers 

I in such a manner^ and AA'ith such sweeping and rhetori- 
cal pov\'er, as often thrilled his entire congregation. 
Vrith his Presiding Elder^ Mr. Havens had become 
familiar; for. though he AA'as much his superior^ both 
in office and age, there AA^as still no distinction betAveen 
them. Both vrere Methodist preachers^ Avhich^ of 
itself^ recognized an equality^ and this common frater- 
nization^ doubtless^ gaA^e them additional power among 
the people. "With his colleague^ Mr. HaA^ens AA'as also 
intimate^ for he found him both humble and honesty a 

J true yoke-felloAV and a good young man. For more 

! than fifty years^ Mr. Simmons has continued in the 
AYork of the itinerancy^ and^ at the present AA'riting, he 
is popularly knoAAm as one of the most A^aluable fathers 
in the Cincinnati Conferenee. The life of such a man 
is AA'ell AA'orthy of the highest moral record^ for he has 
stood for the defense of the truth through all the 
changes and storms of more than a half century. And 
long after the passing aAvay of nearly eA^ery one of his 
early ministerial associates, he still stands at the 



216 



head of his Conference, among the third generation of 
preachers^ every one of whom rise up and call him 
blessed. 

While there were many good and noble men^ both 
in the ministry and membership in Ohio^ with whom 
Mr. Havens had formed warm friendships, he now and 
then, in the discharge of his duties as a Circuit rider, 
met with a few men of the other sort — men who did 
but little good themselves, and who seemed to become 
angry or jealous whenever they saw another trying to 
do any good to his race. The world has always had 
its share of this class of ^^dumb driven cattle,^^ and, 
while laboring in Ohio, it was Mr. Havens' unfortu- 
nate fate to be no little troubled by them. 

To defeat such men is not always an easy task, for 
often they have wealth to back them, and, in some 
instances, they are sustained by respectable social posi- 
tions, and often even by the dignity of office. Such, 
in former years, was perhaps more particularly the 
case than in the present days. 

At one of Mr. Havens' camp meetings, held on the 
Rocky Fork of Paint Creek, in Highland county, Ohio, 
where he was assisted by Job M. Baker and Rev. G. 
B. James, both of whom were excellent preachers, as 
well as sound divines, the latter was appointed to 
preach the sermon to the large congregation on Sab- 
bath. The crowd was great, and, of course, there were 
some who were restless, and very little disposed to 
pay any attention to either the sermon of the preacher 
or the rules of the meetinc;. 

One gentleman particularly seemed to lead off in 



217 



this insubordination^ but^ as he was a magistrate^ he 
perhaps thought the importance of his office made him 
a privileged character. He took his stand with others 
who were following him^ on the seats prepared for the 
ladies. The squire more than any of the gang made 
a conspicuous figure^ as he wore a large red vest. He 
consequently attracted very general attention. Mr. 
James kindly and modestly requested the gentlemen to 
be seated^ and suggested the propriety of their occu- 
pying their own side of the congregation. To this the 
magistrate and his associate crowd, paid no attention. 
This of course stirred the blood of Mr. Havens to the 
point of self protection^ at least, and he jumped to his 
feet and asked the preacher to hold up a minute until 
he would regulate the congregation. 

Mr. James stepped back a pace, Avhen Mr. Havens 
addressed the assembly. 

" I wish to say to this vast assembly that there are 
a great many things in nature which might be so 
changecl^ that they woukl possess entirely different 
qualities and properties — but a simple substance, you 
all know^ can never be changed, you may change the 
mode of its existence, but it will still possess the same 
nature. I believe, said he, that I vrill give you an 
illustration of what I am aiming at. For instance 
you may make a magistrate out of an ass and attempt 
to change him into a gentleman by dressing him up in 
scarlet colors — but all you can do in that way, will 
aifect but little. The color will not hide his nature^ 
or conceal his ears. They will still stick out, and 
every one who will look at him w'ill see that he is a 
19 



I 



218 . I 

bona fide ass^ even in defiance of all his assumed j 
official dignity/^ 

The manner in which this was said^ and the signifi- 
cant pointing of his finger toward the red breasted I 
magistrate^ as he stood on the seats of the ladies^ in i 
contemptuous defiance of all rules, made the township j 
dignitary wilt before the well timed and richly ! 
merited excoriation, and in a moment or two, he and j 
his entire gang sloped from the presence of the 
delighted congregation, and the preacher went on with 
his sermon as if nothing at all had happened. 

Some few weeks after this camp meeting Mr. Havens 
w^as passing to an appointment near where this red 
breasted magistrate resided, when suddenly he pitched 
out from behind a tree and seizing Mr. Havens^ horse 
by the bridle, he sternly and witii great threats 
demanded satisfaction for the gross insult he claimed 
to have received at the above meeting. He held a 
large club in his hands, and seemed ready and deter- 
mined to strike. He dared the preacher to get down 
from his horse. This, Mr. Havens did not feel just 
then disposed to do, as fighting was not in his role. 
Still the squire threatened to strike. 

If you do strike me squire, said Mr. Havens, you | 
had better strike hard enough to disable me, or you |j 
may rest assured that a certain justice of the peace will I 
get such a whipping as he never dreamed of since he 'j 
was born.^^ With this declaration, Mr. Havens made ' 
a seeming effort to dismount, when the first thing he j 
knew the gallant squire had dropped the reins of his I 
bridle, and was making for the woods as fast as his 



219 



feet could carry him. It was after such order as this 
that many of the early pioueer preachers of the West 
had to contend against flesh and blood of " the baser 
sort/^ and it seemed to be necessary^ at times, for some 
of them to show such fellows^ to use a western phrase^ 
that " they were not born in the woods to be scared by 
an owl/^ 



220 



! 

i 



CHAPTER XXII. j 

HIS INDIANA COTEMPORARIES. 

I 

Mr. Hayens came to Indiana in the year 1824. \ 
Transferred from the Ohio to the Illinois Conference^ I 
he removed his family in the fall of that year to this | 
State^ with the purpose of settling them on land which ; 
he hoped to call his own. The Illinois Conference J 
had been authorized the spring before^ and included j 
the State of Indiana^ as well as the State whose name 
it bore. This entire territory contained only a little 
over six thousand members, and counted only about 
thirty itinerant preachers. The country was all new^ 
and much of it had never been touched with the ax of 
the pidneer. 

Two of the districts of this large Conference lay in 
Indiana^ and included all of the settled portions of the 
State. The Madison District was * presided over by 
Rev. John Strange^ and the Indiana District by Rev. ) 
James Armstrong. 

Mr. Havens was appointed to the Connersville Cir- 
cuity which included all of the country above Brook- | 
ville^ on the White Water, as far as the settlements 
extended. It was reported to contain four hundred 
and five members. 1 

At that period, John Strange was the most distin- | 
guished, as he was considered the most eloquent, li 
preacher in the Conference. Impulsive and eccentric, | 
and full of the fire and zeal of his itinerant mission, his i 



221 



success was only equaled by his popularity, and it was 
not remarkable that he stood at the head of his Con- 
ference. 

Tall and straight, and possessing only the accom- 
plishments of a Brush College graduate, he yet had 
about him the power to command promiscuous assem- 
blies in such a manner as no other minister in the 
State possessed. 

Graceful in action, and clear in utterance, his voice 
itself was eloquent, and, when he elevated it to its 
highest pitch, it rang out upon his congregations with 
a commanding majesty, and subduing force, which 
could only be compared to the storm winds, when the 
fierceness of the hurricane is on its track. 

Many have attempted to describe the style of his 
peculiar oratory, but we doabt if any one has ever yet 
succeeded. It could not be said that he imitatevl any 
one who ever preceded him, for he never had a master. 
He held the people with the enchantment of his intona- 
tions, and his pulpit performances were like the charm- 
power of a musical amateur. The people gathered to 
hear him by thousands, and he made them laugh and 
cry, as if they had been but titular subjects, incapable 
of resistance. All loved him Avith an ardency which 
knevv no limit, and they consecjuently listened to his 
preaching, as if he had been an apostle. No man with 
a purer spirit, or a greater self-sacrificing zeal, has 
ever been known among the ministers of the State. 
This world Vv^as not his home. Heaven was alone the 
song of his soul, and the only objective point of all his 
expectations. 



222 



It is said tliat a friend once presented him with a deed 
for a quarter section of land^ which afterwards became 
exceedingly valuable ; but he did not accept of it. He 
thought the earthly allurement might harm him^ and 
he returned the deed to the generous donor^ and 
declined his offer. If I accept your land^'^ said he, 
" I will never again be able sing : 

* No foot of land do I possess, 
Nor cottage in this wilderness, 

A poor way-faring man.^ 

In those days it was thought that humility and 
poverty traveled together, and that nothing would rob 
a preacher of his spirituality and power, sooner or 
more certainly, than worldly-mindedness. This, at 
least, was John Strangers idea, and the conception 
may possibly have a greater amount of Jerusalem phi- 
losophy in it than many may willingly admit of at the 
present day. 

The animus of the ministry in those early times was 
simple and unobtrusive in all worldly things. Yet, in 
all that involved the interests of the soul, it was bold 
and fearless, and full of the fire of an invincible 
divinity. 

Among those who may be properly classed as the 
cotemporaries of Mr. Havens, none were held in 
higher esteem than John Strange. He was Mr. 
Havens' first Indiana Presiding Elder, and their 
hearts ran together like those of Jonathan and David. 
For eight years they labored together as bonded yoke- 
fellows; and when, on the 2d day of December, 1832, 
Strange laid off his armor in death, Mr. Havens felt 



223 



and said that ^'the brighest star of the Conference had 
fallen/^ Young in life and in the ministry^ he had at 
forty-four years of age exchanged the cross for the 
crown^ and was followed to his grave by the lamenta- 
tions of more people than any minister^ perhaps^ who 
has ever died in Indiana. 

Rev. Allen AViley^ the eminent doctrinal preacher 
and^ studious divine^ was another of Mr. Havens^ 
cotemporaries^ whose sincere and exalted character 
secured for him the most distinguished consideration 
of the Conference, which position he continued to 
maintain up to the day of his death. 

As a theologian, Mr. Wiley had the reputation of 
being the profoundest of his Conference. To this 
department he had specifically and studiously directed 
the chief attention of his life, with the happiest results. 
Church history, ecclesiastical jurisprudence, and pol 
emic divinity, had commanded his patient studies for 
years. Hence, he was thoroughly informed in all that 
comprehends the history of theology, as well as with 
its numerous and technical doctrines. Like his brother 
associates, he was no collegiate, for his student days 
began when such institutions were only a myth in the 
West. The broad recitation rooms of Nature's Insti- 
tute, known among the Methodist clergy as Brush 
College,^^ afforded him ample opportunities for mental 
application, which he improved with a studious assi- 
duity that ultimately placed him as a divine in the 
very first rank among western theologians. Without 
a master, Mr. Wiley took up the Latin and Greek 
languages, and while traveling large Circuits and Dis- 



224 



tricts^ and doing the full labors of a faithful itinerant, 
he made himself familiar with their- structure and ' 
idiom. Though uninfluenced by any thought, or hope 
of literary emolument, his habits of study, even led J 
him as late as 1844, when he was in New York attend- 
ing the General Conference, to purchase a supply of 
Hebrew works, the study of which engaged his atten- 
tion up to the day of his death. Indeed, it may, be 
said that he was the pioneer student among the itiner- 
ants of the State. He, more than any other man, set 
the example of study to the younger ministers, and 
barked the way for the establishment of the college 
now so well known in our State, as the Asbury Uni- 
versity.^^ Mr. Wiley had not the eloquence of Strange, 
nor did he possess the practical heroism of Havens ; 
yet, in classical and theological scholarship, he far 
excelled them both. 

The scholarly attainments of Wesley were his beau 
ideal of ministerial accomplishment, and while he 
diligently mastered all the doctrinal points of Metho- 
dist theology, and made himself familiar with all the 
peculiarities of Methodist discipline, Mr. AViley 
aimed " to show himself a minister who needed not be 
ashamed before any audience, or in any pulpit. 

Of course his services to the Church bore an inval- 
uable stamp, and held him for many years at the head 
of his Conference — for humble and patient — arduous 
and true, he gave all the vigor of his years to her 
upbuilding, and even when he retired — v/hich was an 
error which the Conference should never have per- 
mitted — ^he acted in view of others, and not of himself. 



225 

The example and wisdom of experienced age, is 
doubtlesSj essential to the safe guidance of the min- 
istry in all bodies, and it is on this account that such 
men should be cared for — even aside from a decent 
gratitude — because they serve as reliable head lights 
along the tracks of religious civilization, without which 
progress is often only deterioration, and even advance- 
ment, itself, bears but a dubious character. 

Tlie names of Strange and Yviley, Havens and 
Enter, Armstrong and Locke, Jones and Oglesby, w^ere 
associated in the primitive records of Indiana Meth- 
odism, and the history of any one of them would 
involve the life incidents of all the rest. For years, 
these pioneers, and wilderness evangelists^ met in their 
annual convocations, with perhaps as pure fraternal 
feelings as often falls to the lot of men. They were 
brethren, and if at any time there were manifestations 
of an unpleasant character, the weakness was that of 
nature rather than of principle, for honest and sincere^ 
as well as deeply conscientious, these humble mission- 
aries, were as tender in their emotions, as thev were 
generous and noble, in all of life\s higher and purer 
sensibilities. 

It was our privelege to meet them first at the Con- 
ference held in the then village of Lafayette, in the 
month of October, 1835. 

Calvin W. Enter, another of - Mr. Havens^ old 
compeers particularly attracted our attention at that 
conference, for he was tall and athletic, and carried in 
his mien the dignified air of an inteUigent Christian 
gentleman. 
20 



226 

For nearly a score of years he had been identified i 
with the itinerancy, and he stood np among his brethren ' 
of that Conference, as a leading chief, whose words j 
bore the majesty of law— while his gentle and conserv- i. 
ative spirit only tended to increase his power. \ 

The evidence of his goodness was apparent to every j 
one- — and through all the years of his laborious and use- , 
ful life, he steadily and consistently continued to sustain , 
the same high character. Mr. Enter was, perhaps^ ! 
the finest looking man of his Conference, and though 
not equal to Wiley in scholarship, or to Strange in 
eloquence, or to Havens in bold energy, he was in his 
general character and qualifications, for the work of 
the ministry, the full equal of any of them. His 
commanding appearance in the pulpit, as on the floor 
of the Conference, gave him the dignified advantage 
of the orator, while his tender and pathetic spirit 
always touched the feelings, and held the respectful 
regards of his audiences. His preaching was conse- 
^quently effective and popular, and gave him a position 
in the Conference among the first and foremost of his 
brethren. 

With James Armstrong and George Locke, we were 
not acquainted. The former died at Laporte on the 
12th of September, 1834, and the latter in New | 
Albany on the 15th of July of the same year. Nehe- i 
miah B. Griffith, whose name has been so sacredly i 
blended with those of Armstrong and Locke, died in i 
St. Joseph county, on the 22d of August, also in that j 
year. Losing three such valuable co-laborers, so near If 
together, the Conference felt the loss more severely, !^ 



227 



and their names, on this account, have always been 
held in sacred association. 

Griffith was zealous, Locke was solid, and Arm- 
strong was eloquent. Thus distinguished, they were 
valued as w^orkmen above the ordinary character; and 
when within a few months of each other, their deaths 
were announced, the solemn emotions of the Confer- 
ence gave evidence that three of their most valued 
cotemporaries had fallen. The sorrows of regret mani- 
fested on the occasion of the deaths of good men is always 
a tribute to worth and virtue, which reflects well upon 
the living as w^ell as upon the dead. Virtue, indeed, 
need ask for no higher monument than to live in the 
memories of the good, the true and the noble. For 
then the moral of its power is best preserved, and 
the honor of its achievements will have an enduring 
record. 

Among the immediate cotemporaries of Mr. Havens, 
we may also name the Rev. Joseph Oglesby, whose 
tall and gaunt formi, and small but piercing grey eye, 
indicated his intellectual and nervous character. Pos- 
j sessing a mind somewhat disposed to metaphysical dis- 
cussions. Dr. Oglesby was at one time thought by some 
of his brethren to be a little tinctured w^th Socinian 
views, and, at the Conference of 1835, there w^as some 
complaint made against him on this score. But as 
nothing definite could be obtained, the venerable Rob- 
■ erts, who presided at the conference, suggested that 
( Dr. Oglesby had better be heard before he was con- 
j - demned for heresy. That night the Doctor preached 
a sermon on original sin and human depravity, before 



the whole Conference^ including the Bishop himself. 
The next morning his character passed,- but not until 
the venerable Roberts had remarked that ^'^if Dr. 
Oglesby was a herecticj he himself had been preach- 
ing heresy all his life.^^ 

The style of Dr. Oglesby^s preaching was often 
highly metaphysical ; and while his arguments were 
clear to the minds of well educated thinkers, they 
were not always comprehended by the ordinary ones. 

Being a physician as well as a minister, Dr. Oglesby 
had thought, as well as read, and it was not, therefore^ 
strange that, in some of his higher discussions, he was 
misconstrued by the suspicious or the thick-headed and 
ignorant. It is not always the better fortune for a 
preacher to get beyond the depths of his hearers, for^ 
in such cases, he will be liable to failure for the want 
of proper appreciation. This, perhaps, more than 
anything else, was the case with the venerable Oglesby. 
His intellectual power, in its depth and fullness, was 
not as highly appreciated as it really deserved; for he 
was evidently a minister of culture, and should have 
carried down to his grave a much brighter theological 
renown than many gave him. 

But Dr. Oglesby will long be remembered for his 
eminent pioneer zeal, his numerous sacrifices, his per- 
sonal piety, as well as for his great usefulness and dis- 
tinguished abilities. He died in the city of Madison^ 
in the year 1850. 

Of James Jones and James L. Thompson, we may 
also make honorable mention in this connection, for 
both of them ^vere long associated w-ith Mr. Havens 



229 



in the work of the itinerancy^ and were held by him 
in the highest esteem. They were both true yol^e-fel- 
lows in the gospel harness^ and successfal laborers in 
the great vineyarol of Indiana itinerancy. 

There were many others who were long associated 
in the work of the ministry with the venerable Havens, 
whose characters might be justly sketched up in this 
brief chapter, but most of them Vv^ere of a younger 
class, and, therefore, may be termed associates rather 
than cotemporaries. Rev. Aaron Wood, D. D., who 
is still living, and whom we have the honor to claim 
as our first Presiding Elder, was on the Connersville 
Circuit in 1823, the year before Mr. Havens, having 
been admitted on trial in the Ohio Conference in 1822. 
Dr. Wood, however, was a youno-er man, and belono-s 
legitimately to a succeeding generation, as is the case 
also with the eloquent Richard Hargrave. Both of 
these distinguished Methodist divines are still living, 
though they, too, are passing rapidly before another 
generation, who are treading closely upon their heels. 
The rapidity of the flying decades gives such transi- 
tions in the ministerial life as should lead us to remem- 
ber that ^^dnst we are and unto dust shall we all 
return. 

There is power in everything of a cotempora- 
neus character, which is apt to make it sacred, and in 
the holy work of the ministry, and particularly in the 
old pioneer sacrifices of the Methodist itinerancy, there 
was found an affinity of brotherhood — a sacred bond 
of fraternity, which gave to the ministry a purity, and 



230 



an unselfish dignity , which if it was not legitimately 
apostolic, was at least divine. 

There were then no rich stations for the ambitious to 
be jealous about, and no fat circuits for the aspiring to 
ask for. Even the Presiding Elders, who were in 
those days, the fathers of the Conference — had the 
hardest fields, and were called upon to make the 
greatest sacrifices. What is now known as a salary, 
or even as an allowance, for support, was unknown 
among these early pioneer itinerants and when they 
met in their annual Conferences and reported the 
amount of quarterage received, it was evident to all 
that sacrifice was the common order of their support. 

It was not therefore marvelous, that the friendships 
of such men were sincere. They knew each other as 
heroes in a common cause, and the grand success of 
their battle fields, in connection with their personal 
and family sufferings, gave them the most implicit 
confidence in one another. 

Their common fortunes made them fraternal while 
the zeal and spirit of their itinerant chivalry, led them 
on to victory, often regardless of personal health, and 
with but few thoughts of who should be the greatest 
in the Kingdom of Heaven. Such men deserve the 
honors of a perpetual memory. 



231 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

HIS LOCAL MINISTRY. 

The practical system of theological schools insti- 
tuted by the Methodists^ first in Europe and then in 
America^ of licensing local preachers, was as novel as 
it was primitive. 

It demanded no stately edifice with collegiate 
endowments, or scholastic Professors to teach young 
noviriates the lessons of anatomic theology, or to 
polish them off with the accomplishments of linguistic 
lore. All such attainments — however highly prized 
they may be in the present day — -would have utterly 
failed of appreciation among the early settlers of the 
West. 

Sincere, and earnest, and zealous men were the only 
proper workmen for those early times. Men who 
held the higher commission, the superior qualifications 
of being pious, and humble, and self-sacrificing, and 
fearless, and who cared more to possess the spirit of 
Christ than they did for any qualifications or greatness 
mankind could give them, Avere the only ministers who 
had success among the people, or who could meet the 
public will. 

Heroic and self taught, and under the conviction 
that they were called of God to the work of the min- 
istry, they never thought of waiting for ^^calls,^^ or 
churches, or salaries. They, indeed, stood not on 
the order of their going,^^ anywhere, but having expe- 
rienced pardon themselves, they felt constrained to 



232 



publish it to others. It was not human science that 
they aimed to teach^ but the love of Christ. Hence 
they made no pretensions to hnman greatness of any 
sort. They gave themselves alone to the work of tlie 
ministry^ and were recognized as the instruments of 
numerous conversions^ which in those days, was con- 
sidered the strongest evangelical evidence of being 
called of God to the work. 

The field was large and the harvest great^ and sin- 
cere and honest laborers were welcomed everywhere 
by both preachers and people. Many young men 
were licensed to preach, whose literary educations 
were limited to the mere qualification of being able to 
read in a stammering manner the v/ordof God. Right 
in heart, because of their baptism by the Holy Spirit, 
and poorly educated as they were, they carried v/itli 
them a power which was readily recognized, as it 
moved all hearts, and often resulted in revivals which 
worked reform, even in the most hardened neighbor- 
hoods. 

The principle became a fixed one among the early 
Methodists, that the power of usefulness was always 
the best evidence of divine endowments. Hence, it 
was not a difficult matter for them to believe that he 
had ^^a call to preach who had ''gifts, grace and 
fruits,'^ no matter how deficient he might be in educa- 
tion or general knowledge. 

In the economy of the Metliodist Episcopal -Church, 
the power to license men to preach has always been 
invested in the Quarterly Conferences, which are com- 
posed of the Presiding Elder of the District—who is ex 



233 



oiflcio President — the preachers of the Circuit, or Sta- 
tion, and the stewards and class leaders. But even 
they can not license any one to preach, unless he is 
first recommended by the class of private members to 
which he belongs. 

The fact is, therefore, a patent one, that all Metho- 
dist preachers have to come up from among the people^ 
Y>-ho are the primary judges of their characters, abili- 
ties and qualifications, as well as of their future 
promise. To this peculiar feature of Methodism, 
we, undoubtedly, may refer the fact, that many have 
become en:iinently useful, and others eminently dis- 
tinguished, who, if they had ^4arried at Jericho until 
their beards were grown, would never have preached 
a" sermon, or have been known in the ministry. Espe- 
cially vv'ould this have been the case witli Mr. Havens, 
for, when he was converted, as he often used to say^ 
^4ie knew nothing, save that he was a sinner saved by 
grace.^^ His field of thought and education had been^ 
up to that hour^ only the mere privileges of the wdlder- 
ness. With books and schools he had had no com- 
munication; and though he had life and health, and 
the bold energy of a noble young manhood, the great 
purposes and aims of his life had never occurred to 
him, and, indeed, they did not until his heart was 
moved by the spirit of God to repentance, when his 
eyes were first opened and he began to see that 

^' It was not the wliole of life to live," 

and that there w^as a work for him to do which God 
required at his hands; and though young and igno- 



234 



rant, and without the means to obtain an education, 
he at once heroically determined to make the best of 
his poor circumstances^ and, come what might, he 
would give his life to the services of preaching the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Timid and always confident of his own weakness, 
his reliance for success was on the arm that was alone 
almighty. The Holy Bible, was the text book of his 
life, and he made it the man of his counsel, and the 
guide of his years. This invaluable treasury of spir- 
itual light and infinite ideas, he read day and night, 
with a reverence which was as profound and sincere as 
was his faith. This book of books, in his esteem, was 
infinitely above all others, and to his high and abiding 
regard for all its declarations, we may, doubtless, 
attribute the particular soundness of his theology 
through all the years of his ministry. 

Without a master to teach him, or a school to lead 
him on, with a self-reliance and perseverance, as noble 
as they were rare, he by the steady dint of labored 
thought, forced his way toward the temple of divine 
knowledge, gathering strength from the richness of 
his personal experience and from the fields of his prac- 
tical operations ; and possessing, as he did, a voice of 
commanding power, he had no difficulty in obtaining 
a congregation whenever he made an appointment. 

Having married about the time he was licensed to 
preach, it became more difficult for him to enter the 
itinerant field, as there were but few of the circuits in 
those days that could support more than one married 
preacher, and where there were two on a circuit one of 



235 



them was nearly always a single man. Consequently 
he remained in a local relation to the Churchy preach- 
ing at such times and places as he was able^ and as was 
the custom in that day with all local preachers^ getting 
nothing for his labors. 

But immediately after the Conference of 1818^ Rev. 
John Collins^ then Presiding Elder of the Scioto Dis- 
trict^ finding Mr. Havens among the local preachers 
of the district^ and preceiving^ which he quickly did^ 
that he had a tongue of readiness and a good share of 
what they called in those days ^^the itinerant fire/^ he 
engaged him to travel the Scioto Circuit in the place 
of Thomas Lowery. Job M. Baker was the preacher 
in charge of the circuity who gave him a kind and 
genial welcome as his assistant^ and encouraged him 
to never think of anything else but to spend his life 
in the labors of the itinerancy. The manly forbear- 
ance and fraternal sympathy of Job M. Baker^ Mr. 
Havens never forgot. Even down to the latest period 
of his life, he seemed never to think of his first col- 
league without expressing the kindliest gratitude for 
the many tokens of his gentle and Christian attentions. 
He knew he was ignorant, and he felt that he was 
but a poor preacher at best^ and to be treated as an 
equal and encouraged as a brother, was more than he 
expected. Had Mr. Baker been the reverse in his 
character and dealt unkindly with his young assistant, 
it might have been that Mr. Havens would have given 
up all his itinerant aspirations and the world and the 
Church would have lost the fruitful benefits of his 
long and distinguished labors. 



236 



We have known young preachers to be driven from ! 
the field of the ministry — yea and even some old ones 
too — by the indiscreet conduct of ambitious men who 
as Shakspeare has it — 

'^Dressed in a little brief authority, 
Play such fantastic tricks before high heaven, i 
As make the angels weep." 

I 

Such specimens of the genus homo have ever been j 
found in the ministry, and perhaps always will be, -\ 
whose liberal acquaintance but seldom extends beyond 
themselves. Like the- Indian, they know " big man 
me/^ and on him they exhaust all the little store of 
their selfish partialities. The large and generous 
feelings of the priestly character they never know, ] 
and wd:ierever such ministers are found, like the 
Indian's gun, ^'^they cost more than they come to/^ \ 

The following year, Mr. Havens w^as employed ! 
again as a local supply by the same Presiding Elder, ; 
but on the Deer Creek Circuit, with Rev. John Brown, ( 
in charge. ^ , 

Mr. Havens had not the indorsement of being an | 
appointee of the Conference. His relation was only \ 
that of a local preacher, which, as some measure it, is j 
a sort of an anomalous relationship in the ministry, as ' 
it gives the preacher no charge, and, consequently, no ' 
pay, and yet it holds him responsible for the exercise j 
of his gifts and office, both as a member of the church 
and also as a preacher. The economy seems, however, to 
recognize the relation as a corps de reseri'e, rather than , 
as a distinct and instituted class in the regular minis- 
try. But humble and unpretending as the relation- 



237 



ship may be^ it has constituted, through all its history, 
an arm of strength in the wide-spread field of itiner- 
ant Methodism, the fidelity and usefulness of Avhich 
has been acknowledged in every department of the 
Church. It was to this corps that Mr. Havens prop- 
erly belonged, though the Presiding Elder had him 
exercising his gifts and graces in an itinerant capacity. 
But how well he would succeed he knew not, and with 
many doubts and fears he had yielded to the solicita- 
tions of the venerable Collins to try the work of a 
''^Circuit Rider another year. 

The boundaries of a circuit in the State of Ohio in 
1819, usually included the entire territory of three or 
four counties, and contained preaching places, which 
were either private dvrellings or school houses, and 
gave an appointment, and sometimes two, for every 
day in the month. 

It required four weeks to go round one of these cir- 
cuits, and, as the preachers followed each other, the 
system gave the people preaching regularly every two 
weeks. The more prominent localities enjoyed the 
privileges of Sabbath services, while all others had to 
put up with week day preaching, wdiich, indeed, they 
were glad to get, as it was their only chance of hearing 
the gospel at all. Though preaching to thousands in 
their rounds, these indefatigable gospel pioneers but 
seldom got more than one or two hundred dollars a 
year for their services. These figures usually consti- 
tuted the maximum of their pay, and were only real- 
ized on the more popular and wealthier circuits. On 
most of the circuits, the quarterage contributions 



238 



were but feeble mites, and when divided, as they 
always were, at the quarterly meetings, between the 
Presiding Elder and the two •^Circuit Riders,^^ the 
result only made a starving display, a meager remun- 
eration of arduous labors, which demonstrated to the 
people that they were not sitting under ^^a sordid 
ministry/^ 

Several circumstances conspired to make this a year 
of severe trial to Mr. Havens. His talents were far 
above his education, and, as a matter of course, in his 
bold style of declamation, he would sometimes mur- 
der the King's English,^' and violate the rules of gram- 
mar, however strong and vigorous might be his rhet- 
oric. These blunders, though unnoticed among the 
great masses of his hearers, gave room for certain 
scholastic upstarts to find fault with and to criticise 
him. Of course he was sensitive, for he ^knew and 
ielt his deficiencies, but how to remedy them he knew 
not, except by the slow process of his own self-teach- 
ing. 

At the beginning of his labors on this Deer Creek 
Circuit, one who also sustained the relation of a local 
preacher, a short time after his first introduction to 
Mr. Havens, approached him with a scowling and dis- 
social air, and scanning him from head to foot, broke 
in upon him about as follows : 

Well, Havens, you look as little like a preacher as 
anybody IVe ever seen. No doubt you think because 
you wear boots and carry a pair of saddle-bags, that 
you're somebody. If I had my way I'd send you 
honae, and set you to raising corn.'^ 



239 

Such insinuations^ coming from a man who was 
himself a pr^acher^ while they savored heavily of the 
deepest moral impudence, were not without their pain- 
I fully mortifying poAver over the young assistant. He 
could but feel that it was rather a delicate matter to 
thus joke on palpable facts. But he well knew that 
his ignorance was his misfortune, and not his crime, 
and, therefore, he felt that he was yet on the Lord^s 
side, even if he w^as a v\'eak instrument in the min- 
istry. 

Another of these indiscreet critics, who was also in 
the local ministry, some time after this took Mr. 
Havens to one side and seriously advised him ^^to 
quit and go home; that he never would make a 
preacher. 

Fortunately for the church, and for the salvation 
of thousands, these imprudent, not to say impudent 
advisors, did not succeed in their designs. Mr. Havens 
had the nerve of the hero as well as the spirit of the 
ministry, and he well knew that it took something 
better than good grammar and respectable appearr 
ances to convert souls. 

His was a mission for the souls of men, and he felt 
impelled to execute it even at the risk of human ridi- 
cule, or the visible insinuations of a pedantic and 
envious brotherhood. His experience told him that 
God was his friend, and he saw each round that he 
made on his circuit that souls were converted through 
his humble instrumentality. In his convictions such 
testimony was more than golden, and after passing 
through such trying ordeals, his heart gathered new 



240 

fire, as he sang and prayed ar(3und his numerous forest 
altars. AYhen under such clouds he often sang — 

''Fear not, I am with thee ; O, be not dismayed, 
For I am thv God, and will still give thee aid; 
I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand. 
Upheld bv my righteous, omnipotent hand." 

Only some two or three years after this one of these 
local preachers who had talked so discouragingly to 
Mr. Havens^ met him at a camp meeting where it fell 
to Mr. Havens^ lot to preach to a large congregation 
at the popular Sunday hour. The occasion was an 
important one^ which the preacher feU. more sensibly^ 
perhaps, than any one on the ground. Many other 
preachers were present^ but the Presiding Elder had 
given him the hour and it only remained for him to 
meet the emergency^ which he did in such a manner 
and with such a spirit of success and of gospel triumph, 
as led the repentant local preacher greatly to his honor 
as well as to his Christian character, to call Mr. Havens 
out to a private confession after the sermon, when with 
a heart full of emotion he entreated him to forgive and 
forget ^* how he had abused him while he was on the 
Deer Creek Circuit.^* 

Mr. Havens assured the brother that he had not 
abused him at all, for said he, ^' Every word you then 
said about my ignorance was all true, and I am glad 
you ever told me of it, for it made me determined to 
make such efforts to improve as would prevent all 
others from ever again telling me the same story. 
From that hour the two were friends, for none ever 
won on Mr. Havens^ friendship more than the man of 



241 



frankness. He was plain himself — and sometimes 
even blunt and rongh — but being honest in it all^ he 
was disposed to accredit the same honorable motives in 
others. He well knew that the naked truth often cut 
keenly, but he loved it the better on that account. 



21 



242 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

HIS CIECUITS. 

The institution of circuit preaching, on the plan of 
the itinerancy, has opened the way for the exercise of 
every variety of talent in the ministry. As is well 
known, lay preachers chiefly occupied this field in the 
outstart of Methodism, and, when the work extended 
to America, the same ministerial order was continued 
until the regular organization of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the year 1784. From that period the 
preachers have been ordained deacons after two, and 
elders after four years^ service in the itinerancy; 
while local preachers have been required to serve about 
twice as long before they could receive ordination. 

Having had some two years^ experience on circuits, 
as a local preacher, while employed by Presiding 
Elders, Mr. Havens was in some sense prepared by 
experience to take the charge of a work, of which fact 
the Conference must have been convinced, or he would 
not have received his first appointment without a col- 
league. To go to a circuit alone in ^hose early days, 
was not devoutly wished for among the preachers, for 
they were generally sent by twos, as it was deemed the 
better plan, as well as more in accordance with the old 
Apostolic custom. 

Salt Creek was Mr. Havens' first circuit in the 
Conference; and though it was both a large and rough 
one, its title, one might think, assured him of his 
"salt/' however meager might be his other supplies. 



243 



The hills were steep and rugged, and the stream which 
designated his field of toil had often to be crossed, 
and^ as its waters were both deep and rapid, the effort, 
at times^ gave the young itinerant good reasons to fear 
that he might never reach in safety the opposite shore. 
He had to preach some thirty times every four weeks 
in making his round on the work ; and, as there was 
not a church, or meeting house, in its bounds, all his 
religious services were held either in log school houses, 
or else in the cabin-homes of the people. The rides 
were long, and often cold as well as dangerous; and 
the lonely monotony of the dreary travel was only 
broken by the grandeur of Nature^s scenery — or by 
the stealth^ tread of wild animals throuoh the thick 
and gigantic forests. 

The quarterly meetings of the year brought to his 
society and aid the venerable Samuel West, who was 
his Presiding Elder, to which periods he always looked 
Vvith the warmest anticipations. Mr. West was a good 
preacher, and one of the very best of Christian men, 
and in each of his visits he cheered the young circuit 
I rider with the happy relations of his own experience, 
1 and entertained him with many interesting incidents 
of his itinerant travels, which did much to spur up his 
zeal and to lead him to determine not to lay down the 
cross until he did so to receive his crown. 

All around his work the people treated him kindly, 
and it was only now and then that he met with any 
j who might have been termed ^^the beasts' of Ephesus.^^ 
A few of this latter class, of course, stumbled upon 
him here and there, but the contest was always a short 



244 



one^ as he well knew how to manage them. The old 
fire of western chivalry had long before taught him 
never to run from a foe, and no matter who interfered 
w^ith his religious meetings, he was always ready to 
stand in his own defense, and if it was forced upon 
him, h^ was not wholly averse to give them a lesson 
in some sort of gymnastics, and in such a way as to 
make them remember him. 

The year 1821, found Mr. Havens on the Straight 
Creek Circuit, as it was customary in those days to 
change every preacher at each Conference, and give 
him a new field. This, it was thought in that day, 
was the only sure way to keep up the itinerancy. 
Straight Creek was nearer Mr. Havens^ home than 
Salt Creek, and was as large a circuit, and in many 
respects was very much like it, and on this represen- 
tation of it, he went to it with a cheerful determination 
to do his duty. He had no colleague, which he felt to 
be his greatest trial, for the whole year would pass 
away, probably, Avithout his being privileged to see 
any of his itinerant brethren except his Presiding 
Elder. In the quarterly visitations of such an Elder 
as he had this year — Greenbury R. Jones — Mr. Havens 
realized that his quarterly meetings were seasons of 
refreshing beyond what he had ever experienced before. 

The name of Greenbury R. Jones, was not only a 
power in the Conference, but also among the people, for 
as a preacher, he was recognized as one of the most 
eloquent men of the West. On this circuit Mr. Havens 
was greatly favored in his work, and met with a suc- 
cess which showed him to be worthy of even a leader- 



245 



ship among liis brethren. He found 391 members in 
bis circuit and at the close of the Conference year he 
reported 625. In the zeal of his mission he often 
preached day and night, and wherever he went, the 
people gathered in the cabins to hear him with admiring 
and implicit confidence. 

The Conference of 1822^ which was held at Marietta^ 
placed Mr. Havens on Brush Creek Circuity with 
Henry B. Bascom, as preacher in charge. 

Having been admitted into full connection and 
ordained Deacon by Bishop R. E. Roberts^ at this 
Conference, Mr. Havens was now in full standing 
among his brethren, and as he had heard his name 
read out in connection with that of the most eloquent 
preacher of the Conference it was natural that he 
should have well grounded fears, that, in comparison 
with his colleague he vroukl be almost a cipher. He 
knew that he had only been preaching along the creeks 
of Ohio, for the past three years, and as he expressed 
himself, he did not expect to be able to hold a candle 
by the side of Bascom.^' 

Brush Creek was a large field of labor, and its 
mountainous hills made the travel as laborious as the 
preaching. Within its bounds, however, were many 
families of intelligence, and the membership numbered 
nearly one thousand. Bascom's father and mother 
resided in the lower part of the circuit, where he of 
course made his home. At this point the two itiner- 
ants often met, and the warm and genial brotherhood 
which grew up between them during the intercourse of 
the year, made them friends all the rest of their lives. 



246 



Generous of heart and always moved by the noblest 
iroptilses, Bascom never stood on formalities or held 
back for a moment when humanity was to be served^ 
for refined and lofty ^ both in his air and spirit^ he 
scorned the heartless distinctions of the world^s pride^ 
and consequently^ he had a heart of sympathy^ as well 
as of affinity^ for any one who had about him the true 
ring of a generous humanity. The yearns* association 
of these two ministers was never forgotten^ but w^as 
often referred to by both of them as a bright and 
cheerful oasis in their itinerant histories. 

Scioto Circuit was Mr. Havens^ third appointment. 
To this field^ on which he had before spent a year, 
under the Presiding Elder, he was now sent by the 
Conference^ with William Simmons, as his colleague. 
This was Mr. Simmons^ third circuit, and his large 
heart and generous nature, made him a most agreeable 
companion, w4iich, with the numerous greetings of old 
friends, made the year an exceedingly pleasant one for 
Mr. Havens. Of course society was yet primitive 
along the Scioto — but the frankness of the old western 
hospitality made the original cabins appear as palaces, 
and the inmates, however, rustic, had about them gen- 
erally much of the nobleness and purity of a sincere 
religious humanity. 

The General Conference of 1824 having made a 
number of grand divisions among the western Confer- 
ences, Mr. Havens attended the Ohio Conference in 
the Fall of that year, at Zanesville, for the last time. 
His large and growing family, he knew was unsuited 
to the privations of the itinerant work, and after 



247 ■ . ! 

i 

mature deliberations, he determined to make Indiana ' 
his future home, as well as the field of his subsequent 
labors, and he therefore took a transfer to the Illinois i 
Conference, which from that period included not only ■ 
the territory of Illinois but also that of Indiana. ■ 

In the month of Xovember, 1824, Mr. Havens 
removed his family to Spring Hill, Decatur county, 
Indiana, and the Illinois Conference appointed him to 
the Connersville Circuit. Rev. John Strange was his ^ 
Presiding Elder, who was traveling a district which 
included about one-fourth of the State. 

That fall Mr. Havens began his work on the Con- 
nersville Circuit with renewed vigor and success, and 
the following spring, he entered a quarter section of 
land three miles west of the town of Eushville, on 
which he and his sons erected a rude log cabin, into I 
which he moved his family even before it was fairly ] 
finished. In this humble cabin home, and on this 
quarter section of land his large family continued to 
live through a large portion of his itinerant years. 
It was perhaps the next season after this cabin was 
! erected, that Mrs. Havens and her sons, in the absence 
! of the husband and father, determined to move it, 
J turret and foundation, to another part of the quarter 
I section. The resolve was accomplished, while the 
I family was sheltered under an improvised tent, in 
which they spent several days and nights. 

A week or two passed away and Mr. Havens, hav- 
ing a distant appointment on his Circuit, essayed to 
reach his cabin-home before night fall, but in this he 
failed, for darkness was around him when he arrived j 



248 • ■ ':1 

at the spot wtere he had last seen it. But the cabin 
was gone; not a log of it was left^ .and^ for a few 
moments^ his feelings were most unenviable. 

He dismounted from his horse perfectly unable to 
comprehend the situation. He stood and looked and \ 
wondered what magic power had spirited away his i 
humble dwelling; but a little closer inspection showed i 
him the traces of the logs^ as they appeared to have 
been drawn away to another locality. He followed 
the trace through the dark forest^ when his heart was | 
relieved as he saw the curling smoke ascending j 
from what appeared to be the same identical cabin. | 
Hitching his horse to the limb of a tree, with his | 
saddle-bags on his arm^ he knocked at the door, when 
he was met by his better half/^ whom he found alive 
and well^ and with the children happily engaged in 
cracking hickory nuts. |i 

Mrs. Havens soon explained the circumstances of I 
the situation. She and the boys thought that it would 
be cheaper to move the cabin to the spring than it , 
would be to move the spring to the cabin, and they 1 
had done it all within five days. Such an economist | 
was essential as the wife of an itinerant in those times, | 
for the Connersville Circuit, though extensive in ter- | 
ritory, and including several county seats, only yielded ) 
him, all told, $56.06J for his year's services. * 

The Conference of 1825 appointed Mr. Havens to | 
the Whitewater Circuit, on which he continued two j§ 
years. John Strange was his Presiding Elder, and j 
the second year, John T. Johnson was his assistant. ^ 



249 



The year 1827^ brought him back to the Eushville 
Circuity Avith Allen AYiley as his Presiding Elder. 

The Conference of 1828 gave him a supernumerary 
relation, and returned him to Eushville Circuity with 
John Kerns, a young man just admitted into the Con- 
ference, as preacher in charge. 

The year 1829, he sustained the same relation but 
was appointed to the YvliiteAYater Circuit, with Lorenzo 
D. Smith as his assistant. 

In 1830, his health was so poor that he had to take 
a superannuated relation, but in 1831, it was again 
changed to that of supernumerary. The sudden death 
of Rev. Benj. C. Stephenson occurring directly after 
Conference, Mr. Havens was called to fill his place in 
tire Indianapolis station. His appointnient to this 
new field, though he was still in very precarious health, 
ended the circuit vrork of his itinerant life. For some 
twelve years he had been engaged in this class of 
appointments, and as they required a sermon for 
almost every day in the year, the continued attacks of 
fever and ague, in connection V\'ith his excessive labors, 
had so reduced him. in health that many feared that 
his days of usefulness were gone by forever. 

What he had done in this circuit work may not 
now be comprehended by the sermon labors of our 
present circuits, for most of the fields v>^hich he had trav- 
eled counted from twenty-five to thirty appointments, 
and demanded about thirty sermons a month, which, 
in the year, would make at least three hundred ser- 
mons. The circuits of the present day do not, we 
presume, average over ten sermons a month. But 



250 



through all this immense labor of traveling and 
preachings Mr. Havens had gone for twelve or fifteen 
years^ when he found himself miserably diseased by 
the foul miasma of the early settlements^ and borne 
down by repeated attacks of fever and ague^ he be- 
came convinced that he was traveling very near the 
doors of death. 

Some have thought Mr. Havens did not make 
very great sacrifices for the churchy because he did not 
move his family through most of his circuit days. Such 
a requisition as that^ if it had been made, would have 
driven him from the work entirely, for his family was 
large, much larger than usually falls to the lot of men. 
His children ultimately numbered fifteen, all of whom 
lived to maturity, not one of them dying until the 
father had attained his sixty-fourth year. 

The humble cabin-home, in which he had placed his 
family because he vv^as compelled to do so or retire 
from the work of the itinerancy, was a sacrifice w^hich 
but few men would make even for the sake of the gospel. 
But this he did, not because he lacked in love for his 
wife and children^ or because he was indifferent in 
regard to their proper education, but it was the com- 
pulsion of necessity— the demanded sacrifice required 
at the hands of the early itinerants. Here in Indiana, 
many brave moral heroes were associated with him, 
who laid down their lives in the primitive itinerancy 
of the State. They did not die of age or from any 
natural diseases ; but they heroically fell at their posts, 
like soldiers on the battle field, with all their armor 
on. Exposed to long rides, and to liabilities of almost 



every conceivable character^ in eating and sleeping, 
and often but poorly protected from the inclemency of 
the weather — riding on horseback through winds and 
storms of rain and snow — frequently swimming the 
wildest streams to reach their appointments^ many of 
them have broken down^ and in a few brief years sank 
to untimely graves. A few. who yet linger on the 
walls of Zion as active laborers, and Avho had son_ie 
participating knowledge in these sacrificing and try- 
ing circuit labors^ will bear their testimony that we are 
not coloring up tragic stories in the statements we here 
give of these early itinerants. ^Ve do not here allude 
to them with any purpose of drawing disparaging 
contrasts between then and now. This is not our. wish 
or design. ATe aim only to recount the noble deeds 
of that heroic faith and labor of love^ which laid the 
foundations of our present grand temple/*^ and which 
now give moral shelter to a hundred thousand mem- 
bers, and a hundred thousand Sunday School scholars, 
besides opening up a beautiful moral pathway of 
health and sul^stantial support for half a thousand 
ministerial itinerants. 

The invaluable labors of these early pioneers can 
not well be estimated too highly, and their memories 
should be embalmed in the hearts of all who have the 
least respect for any of the grand evangelisms of Indi- 
ana. 

The Avork of the moral hero is certainly far above 
that of the military ; for the one gives his life energies 
to preserve men from death, while the other only 
marches to the throne of his power and fame over the 



252 



fallen bodies of his fellow men. Both may be patriots 
and true to their country^ but surely he who has kind- 
led the fires of a renewed life for the benefit of the 
million is God^s noblest workman^ and^ therefore^ 
should hold the place imperial. 



253 



CHAPTER XXY. 

HIS STATIONS. 

In 1820, when Mr. Havens was admitted on trial in 
the Ohio conference^ there was no such thing known as 
a station in the great broad West. Circuits constituted 
the uniform order of the itinerancy, and such was the 
universality of this plan of the work that the horse 
Avas as essential as the man, to meet the true itinerant 
conception. 

This itinerancy, then, admitted of no invidious, or 
class distinctions, for every preacher w^as a Circuit 
Rider.^* The system in its entire simplicity was cer- 
tainly Apostolic, if it was not also the most successful 
known to the modern ages, for the development of its 
zeal and talents, as well as for the high cast of its elo- 
quence and oratory. The bold and suggestive majesty, 
the thrilling and masterly eloquence of the early Metho- 
dist preachers, grew into a proverb. Without the 
knowledge of the classics, many of them were as elo- 
quent as Cicero, and the wild storms of their oratorical 
declamations often held the mighty multitudes, as if 
they were chained to their rude seats as with the light- 
nings of Heaven. 

Who that has ever listened to the eloquent and 
stirring appeals of Waterman or Bascom, Christie or 
Bigelow, Stamper or Kavenaugh, but ^vill admit that 
they have never heard many who were their superiors. 
Or who that has ever attended any of the camp meet- 



254 



ings of such itinerants as Finley or Elliott^ Strange or 
Havens^ but will yield to them the palm of having 
been grand marshals on the divine battle field. The 
style of oratory of such men^ had in it the soul of a 
divinity^ which struck fire as the flinty and kindling 
its consuming flame, it burned as with the power of 
Omnipotence. 

Nature often makes orators far superior to those of 
the schools, and in this institution of ^^the higher 
charter most of these early Methodist divines received 
their only diplomas. Having traveled many thousands 
of miles on horse-back through all seasons^ visiting the 
recitation rooms of nature^ and conversing frequently 
and intimately wdth all of her learned Professors^ the 
lightnings^ the thunders and storms of the nighty and 
with the sun itself through many a long, weary day^ 
these extraordinary men entered the world clothed 
upon with Heaven^s sure artillery. Soldiers of the 
cross^ they were willing to face any danger^ and com- 
missioned from Heaven they felt themselves rich 
without a dollar. Consequently^ they made no com- 
promises with the world of gain, but preached what 
they believed to be the truths perfectly fearless of all 
human circumstances. 

With endowments of this order, but with shattered 
health, in the fall of 1831, Mr. Havens, after taking a 
superanuated relation at the Conference, accepted of 
a call to the Indianapolis station^ to which Rev. 
Benjamin C. Stephenson had been appointed, Mr. 
Stephenson died some two short months after his 
marriage to an excellent widow lady in the city of 



255 



Madison, in which city he had labored the previous 
year. Mr. Havens immediately repaired to this new 
field, and entered upon the labors of a stationed min- 
ister at the Capital, with a zeal and power which 
greatly astonished his old friends. For four years he 
had served them in the capacitv of Presiding Elder^ 
and though he vras highly esteemed among them in 
this relationship, his popular power over them was 
greatly increased, when his congregation came to hear 
him twice every Sabbath. 

His audiences were large and in them Avere seen 
many of the best cultivated minds of the community. 
The membership of the church then counted two 
hundred and fifty-five, but his audiences frequently 
-numbered from four to five hundred. 

As this was his first station, Z\Ir. Havens made every 
possible effort to discover the difference between the 
workings of the station system and that of the circuit. 
The one he had been familiar with through all his 
ministerial life — =but the other was comparatively ^ 
new departure, particularly in Indiana, and though he 
had, during his Presiding Eldership seen something of 
its operations, he was not yet fully satisfixcd that it 
would prove the more efficient plan. 

The older itinerants had witnessed the grand revival 
success of the old circuit system, and it was not very 
natural for them to fall in love at once, with the plan 
of sending one man to preach to the same congrega- 
tion for one and perhaps two years. 

Other denominations were chiefly comfined to this 
one man station system, and it was argued by the old 



256 



Circuit Riders^ that it would lead to formality, sermon 
reading, and to mere sterreotyped devotional usages. 
They thought it might build up a sort of mechanical 
Christianity, and if it was generally adopted among the 
Methodists the preachers might become theological, 
automatons^ instead of being the flaming heralds of a 
present and free salvation. 

Mr. Havens was yet only in the prime of his years, 
but his health was poor, and he was only kept in the 
work by the energy of his indomitable will. The 
universal kindness of his friends made him feel at 
home in his work, and the large congregations which 
crowded out to hear him every Sabbath gave him a 
a full and fair opportunity of doing good on what 
might be termed a large scale. 

His quarterly meetings brought to his aid the heroic 
and eloquent Strange, who was then making his last 
rounds on the district work of this lower world, and 
though sinking gradually under the deceptions flat- 
teries of a pulmonary disease, he stood up in the 
pulpit before his weeping audiences and swept the 
lyre of his song^^ with a voice as shrill and awakening 
as when he enjoyed perfect health. The hearts of 
these two gospel ministers beat in as happy unison as 
any two itinerants who have ever been known in the 
State. 

Possessing the common genius of a true and natural 
eloquence, and belonging to the Alumni of the grand 
old Brush College,^^ they had drunk of the same 
clear waters, and washed in the same old fountains^ 
and their hearts were one. 



257 



Thus far in life their paths had been in the same 
direction^ and the trumpets of Israel had called thera 
together at " the front on many a battle field ; and 
now it was by the mysterious order of Providence that 
they were spending the last earthly year of their asso- 
ciation together. 

Strange was a poor man and so was Havens, for up 
to that period^ and^ indeed^, for many years after^ the 
stipends of Indiana itinerants were only barely suffi- 
cient to keep soul and body from forcible divorcement. 

The service of their lives had been given to the 
preaching of the gospel^ always subject to annual 
removals, and without any of the circumstances of a 
fixed or definite salarv. 

- The quarterage allowance of one hundred dollars for 
the married preacher, and the same for his wife^ and 
twenty-four dollars for each child over seven and under 
fourteen^ and sixteen dollars for all children under 
seven, constituted the only disciplinary provision of 
the Church for the support of Jier ministry up to the 
General Conference of 1836^ consequently it was under 
this regime that these two faithful servants had thns 
far spent their ministry. The moral and spiritual 
civilization of the people had been their one living 
pursuit; and in the fulfillment of their duties, and in 
the accomplishment of this grand object they had 
found their highest wealth, as well as their most sub- 
stantial joys. 

The fact may not now be readily credited, but sev- 
eral of the old Quarterly Conference journals which 
we have seen, show that Mr. Strange, as Presiding 



258 



Elder^ had only received for his share of the quarter- 
age brought up " for the support of -the gospel/^ the 
meager sums of fifty and seventy-five cents. These 
contributions, however, were no evidence of the parsi- 
moniousness of the people, for many of them but sel- 
dom saw a dollar, and instances have often occurred 
where men worked out in the harvest field at fifty 
cents a day, or split rails on the same w^ages, to get 
their money to help support the preacher. 

The year Mr. Havens spent in the Indianapolis sta- 
tion was, in many respects, a pleasant one, and made 
him friends who remained such to the latest period of 
his life. 

The only cloud which the close of the year left over 
him was the declining health of Mr. Strange, who was 
compelled to take a superannuated relation, as his 
earthly pilgrimage was evidently about to close. 

Mr. Havens was called to take a district when Mr. 
Strange retired, and was continued in this relation, 
with the exception of One year when he was agent of 
the ♦Preachers^ Aid Society, until the Conference of 
1844, when he was appointed to the Rushville Station, 
which was his old home where he had preached more 
sermons than he had in any place of his former labors. 
But the people received him gladly, and among them 
he spent one of the happiest years of his life. They 
knew him well, both as a man and a minister, and 
they venerated him as one of the Apostles of the Con- 
ference. 

The next year he asked for a removal, and he was 
sent to Greensburg, which was a larger field, and in 



259 



. his view opened before him a better opportunity of 
success. 

|. The general idea of these older itinerants was, a nev/ 
|! man and a new field for success, and to this iron rule 
they sacrificed domestic ease, social power, and the 
, strong ties of long accpaaintance without the selfish 
i show of a single regret, 

f As a stationed preacher, Mr. Havens never sank 
into the coldness of a lifeless monotony, for he met his 
congregations from Sabbath to Sabbatli with the ap- 
peals of a sincere and earnest heart, and in no instance 
was he ever known to give them what some have 
termed ^^cold coffee warmed over.^^ 

Rich in the deep thought of his soul, and always 
carrying with him a zeal kindled by a live coal from 
off the divine altar^ he held his audiences by the 
enchantment of a power evidently more than human. 
What he said was said simply and earnestly, without 
notes or manuscript, and he often bore off his congre- 
gations with flights of faith and inspiration such as no 
pen can well describe. 

The duties of a stationed preacher he saw were 
quite different from those of a Presiding Elder; but, 
old as he was, he aimed faithfully to perform them. 
He often met the classes and led the prayer meetings, 
and visited the members, because he understood these 
duties to be especially required in all stations. 

Though always distinguished for his social qualities, 
as well as his plain and frank manners, he, in his 
intercourse among the people, knew well how to j^re- 
serve the dignity of the minister, and to command 



260 

respect, which he always did at the hands of all classes ^ 
of the conimnnity. And yet he never pandered to the* 
pride of the rich, or in any way encouraged the build- | 
ing up of a church aristocracy. j 

The assertion has often been made in regard to him ^ 
that he knew no distinctions among men, save those j 
made by vice and virtue. The poor and the ignorant j 
found him their friend, and even the v™ked realized ^ 
the fact that he did not feel himself too good to ^ 
beard the lion in his den.^^ 

In this station Mr. Havens had none to stand to his 
back, both in counsel and support, with more steady . 
and fraternal consistency than Mr. Silas Stewart and 
Mr. Ira Grover. They had both been devoted Metho- 
dists from their early manhood, and in any church 
would have served as substantial pillars. 

The year closed, and Mr. Havens, true to the old 
itinerant idea of annual removals, was at the next Con- i 
ference appointed to the Laurel Station. In this place I 
he had labored in former years, and his name was as ^ 

familiar as household words. i 

Laurel had been laid out by Rev. James Conwell, a \ 
local elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, who j 
was a wealthy farmer, a large pork dealer and mer- t 
chant, and one of the most zealous and successful local f 
preachers of Eastern Indiana. i 

As a station, the field was new to Mr. Havens, and 
he began his work with a full determination to show 
himself a minister that need not be ashamed. The 
whole community crowded out to hear him, and his 
congregations filled the church to overflowing. Within 



261 



' a few months his labors were honored with one of the 
■ greatest revivals ever known in the place. Manv of 
' the best citizens of the village and vicinity connected 
themselves Vv'ith the church, with a large number of 
young men and women. The work Avas evidently of 
the genuine stamp, and the old hero moved among 
them as if the blood of his youth had returned to him 
again. He felt that history was repeating itself, and 
that the spiritual wand of his earlier years was laid 
upon the people with the hand of the Divine povrer. 

In the midst of these joyful exultations, he was re- 
minded that every cup of earthly bliss is more or less 
mingled with gall, for one night, while he and his 
family were absent at meeting, his dwelling took fire, 
and before the fiames could be subdued, his furniture, 
books and papers, were all consumed ; not even leaving 
him the sacred relic of his earlier years, his well-worn 
and highly cherished old-fashioned family Bible. 

Of course his loss was largely made up, but the 
notes of his sermons and many records of value to 
himself, relating to the history of the past, were all 
gone, and the dull, dead ashes were all that was left of 
them. 

But nothing daunted or discouraged, he pursued 
his work with zeal through the year, and vrhen the 
Conference again met he was induced to return to the 
charge for a second term. 

During this year, as in the past, the work went on, 
and the interest in his sermons and exhortations never 
flagged, nor did he let down in any respect in the 
spirit of his zeal. 



•262 1 

I ' 

■I 

From Laurel^ Mr^ Havens was again called to the U 
work of a district, and for seven or eight years he ' i 
continued in his old relation as Presiding Elder, j 
until the fall of 1855, when he was admonished by his , | 
declining energies and health to accept of the nominal 1 
appointment of Conference Missionary. 

In 1861, the preacher who was stationed at Strange 
Chapel, in Indianapolis^ accepted of a chaplaincy in 
the Union army, and a unanimous call was extended S 
by the members of that charge to Father Havens, as he i 
was then universally called. True to the instincts of 
his earlier ministry, he accepted of the invitation, and 
as his children were now all married, he and the ven- 
erable companion of his life took up their abode in the 
parsonage of that church, and once more, after an 
interregnum of some six years, he was again the pastor 
of a flock. This charge was his last life appointment? 
and though he was now feeble and well stricken in years, 
the fires of youth often flashed in his sermons, and the 
turgid eloquence of his former years was frequently 
manifested. The venerable cognomen of ^Hhe old 
man eloquent, was kindly applied to him by many 
who crowded his church to hear the oldest apostle of 
Indiana Methodism. Not for his own name did he 
speak, but the same old spirit of his ancient zeal \ 
moved him to preach for souls, to call sinners to re- ' 
pentance, and to lead the members of the charge on to ; 
still higher victories. This work closed the pastoral | 
services of his. long and useful life. ? 



263 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

HIS DISTRICTS AXD CHAEACTER AS PEESIDIXG ELDER. 

The office of Presiding Elder is one of the peculiari- 
ties of Methodism which seems to have grown up as a 
necessity in the itinerancy. The power of stationing 
the ministers and preachers of the Conferences having 
been placed in the hands of the Bishops of the Church, 
it became necessary for these general superintendents 
to call to their aid some of the older and leading mem- 
bers of each Conference to assist them in making these 
appointments. This, of course, soon led to the insti- 
tution of the office of Presiding Elder, and the test of 
experience, of almost a hundred years, has vindicated 
it to be a wise and efficient wheel in the itinerant 
economy. As a part of the general machinery of the 
Church, this economy has had to pass through the 
fiery furnace of criticism and protest, of conflict and 
animadversion, where its practicability has, perhaps, 
been as severely tried as any other feature of Metho- 
dist polity. Some have objected to the mode of 
appointing Presiding Elders; while others have found 
fault with the measure of their power. Others, while 
admitting the necessity of the office, have contended 
that only the leading and most gifted men of the Con- 
ference should be appointed to it ; while others, again, 
have argued that the office should be given in turns to 
all the experienced men of the Conferences in rotation, 
and without any partiality. Many, also, have held 



264 



the opinion that no one should serve as Presiding 
Elder more than one term at a time^ and not a few 
have advocated the theory that the office should be 
abolished altogether. 

But so far^ none of these doubtful improvements 
have been tried or adopted. Those who have had the 
power of legislating for the Church have been exceed- 
ingly cautious in changing any of its organic laws^ and 
this part of the polity of Methodism exists to-day as it 
was instituted by the Christmas Conference of 1784^ 
when the Methodist Episcopal Church was first organ- 
ized. 

The full moral power of this office^ in the grand 
w^orkings of the itinerancy^ as may be safely said^ has 
never been either fairly weighed or properly estimated. 
In the exercise of its official and broad influences, 
many of the strongest men of the Conferences have 
undoubtedly done more w^ork^ and led the Church to 
greater and more numerous victories in a few years of 
ministerial labor than they would or could have accom- 
plished even in a long life time in the more ordinary 
fields of the pastoral work. 

The original districts over which these officials pre- 
sided were large as well as important^ and as each 
Sabbath brought them before new congregations made 
up of preachers^ both traveling and locals stewards, 
class leaders, and the most intelligent of the laity, 
besides the general public^ who everywhere crowded 
out to hear them by hundreds and thousands^ their 
opportunities for doing good, for writing upon the 
minds and hearts of the people the high moral obliga- 



265 



tions of Christian truth^ were as prominent and wide 
as any class of gospel ministers has ever enjoyed in 
the land. 

In the earlier days it was not nn<3onimon for whole 
families to travel, ten, twenty, and sometimes even 
thirty miles, to attend a quarterly meeting to hear the 
Presiding Elder preach, and to enjoy the revival 
inspirations of such occasions. 

At many of these meetings the congregations were 
large and oftentimes they were compelled to resort 
to the woods, Avhere, under the rich protecting shade 
of the forest trees, they for days partook of the Gospel 
food, as God's ancient Israel ate of the manna in the 
Avilderness. On many of these occasions the scenes of 
tlie day of Pentecost were largely re-enacted^ and an 
impulse was given to the cause of spiritual progress 
which would sometimes continue to pervade the whole 
country for months and years. 

Xo other office of Methodism has ever afforded so 
grand a field for the higher ministerial developments, 
as that of the Presiding Eldership. He Avho filled it 
usually presided^ over some ten or tvv'elve circuits and 
stations, which he visited quarterly, VN'here he met the 
officiary of each charge respectively, and over whom 
he presided in a Quarterly Conference, in which the 
interests of the whole work was looked after, including 
tiie conduct of the preachers, the support of their 
families, the licensing of young men for the ministry, 
and all other matters concerning the welfare of the 
charge. Then, besides all these duties, he was expected 
to preach at least two sermons, and to administer the 
23 



266 



ordinance of the Lord^s Supper; and as the congrega- 
tions were large, attentive and intelligent, it was ex- 
pected that his sermons would be full of sound doctrine 
and also abound with the power of the Divine baptism. 

The men who filled this office in the earlier days of 
Methodism in the West, in many instances, won for 
themselves reputations of the very highest character. 
The names of such heroes might be given by the score 
and hundred, for the church was not scarce of such 
eminent timber/^ She had them in her well-trained 
ranks, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and ever 
ready for the onset; men who counted not their livCg 
dear unto themselves, so they might finish their course 
with joy and the ministry which they had received of 
the Lord Jesus. 

At the first session of the Indiana Conference, which 
was held at New Albany, in the fall of 1832, the self- 
sacrificing and eloquent Strange was voted a superan- 
nuated relation, as his health was gone and his tremu- 
lous footsteps were just on the verge of Jordan. His 
retirement from the work of the Presiding Eldership 
made a vacancy, and Mr. Havens was suggested as a 
suitable successor, and he was appointed to the Madi- 
son district. The field was a large one, reaching from 
the Ohio river to the Mississinaway making almost 
one-fourth of the territory of the State. The rides 
were long and the exposures numerous, but still he met 
his appointments, notwithstanding his health was im- 
perfect, and at the end of the year he was changed to 
the Indianapolis district. This work reached from 
the Capital of the State to Bloomington, in Monroe 



267 



county, and as there was no other way to reach his 
appointments except on horse back, this mode of con- 
veyance was his only reliance^ and the weary pilgrim- 
age around this large district was thus made four times 
during the year. On this field, Mr. Havens continued 
the constitutional term of four years, at the close of 
which he seryed one year as agent of the Preachers^ 
Aid Society. 

At the Conference of 1838, he was again appointed 
Presiding Elder, and sent to the Centreville District, 
The following year he vras on the Connersville District^ 
and in 1840 he was again appointed to the Indianapolis 
District, which relation he continued to occupy for four 
years, when he was stationed in Rushville, Greensburg 
and Laurel, and in 1847, he was appointed to the 
Greensburg District, on which he labored four years, 
when, in 1851, he was placed for the third time on the 
Indianapolis District, on which he remained until the 
fall of 1855, at wdiich time it was thought by many of 
his friends that the days of his active service were 
numbered. For eighteen years he had been an active 
and efficient Presiding Elder, and now that his great 
work was about finished he had made himself a name 
which the church could not v/ell foi'get, and living 
thousands all over the State were ready to stand up as 
the monuments of God's grace, who had been led 
through his preaching to the duties of a religious life. 

The travel and labors of almost a score of years, 
spent in district preaching, had led him over a large 
portion of the State, and made his name familiar to 
many thousands of the families of Indiana, among 



268 



whom he had moved and preached master hero 

in the great moral strife against sin^ and in no instance 
was his name ever associated with a taint of crime or 
in any way touched with the stigma of a dishonorable 
deed. Ever earnest as well as sincere in battling for 
that which was true in doctrine^ and for all that was 
pure in moral principles, the heroism of his positions 
was always consistently vindicated by the firmness and 
stability of his own character, and, therefore, he com- 
manded the reverent regards of men of all classes and 
of every condition in life. 

Hon. Oliver H. Smith, in his Reminiscences of 
Early Indiana,^^ speaks thus of him : 

" James Havens was the Napoleon of the Methodist 
preachers of Eastern Indiana. ' I knew him well. He 
seemed to be made for the very work in which he was 
engaged. He had a good person, a strong physical 
formation, expanded lungs, a clear and powerful voice, 
reaching to the verge of the camp ground, the eye of 
the eagle, and both a moral and personal courage that 
never quailed. His powers as a preacher were of a 
very high order. I never heard but one man that was 
like him in his meridian days, and that was Father 
Newton, who visited this country years ago from Eng- 
land, as a delegate to the i^merican General Confer- 
ence. 

" The great characteristic of Mr. Havens, as a 
preacher, was his good common sense. He could dis- 
tinguish his audience so as not to throw his pearls 
before swine. He could feed his babes with the milk 
of the word, and hurl the terrors of the law against 



269 



old sinners with fearful po\Yer. He seemed to know 
that old blood never runs in young veins^ which so 
many preachers and presidents of colleges too often 
forget. Mr. Havens was one of the most powerful 
preachers I ever heard^ and I have no hesitation in 
saying that the State of Indiana owes him a heavier 
debt of gratitude for the efforts of his long and valu- 
able life to form society on the basis of morality, edu- 
cation and religion than any other man^ living or 
dead.^^ 

Though wholly unconscious of the fact that his per- 
sonal ministry was making some of the most interest- 
ing pages in the history of Indiana Methodism, as 
well as in the advancement of our general civilization^ 
-Mr. Havens always seemed to have an eye to the 
public integrity, as the highest culmination of pri- 
vate virtue. For it was the fixed faith of his heart 
that religion, pure and undefiled, was the only perma- 
nent foundation on which civil society can rest with 
any respectable safety, and this he taught in his ser- 
mons and exhortations Avith a zeal which knew no 
restraint save that which was regulated by Christianity 
itself. 

The position which he maintained for so many years 
as Presiding Elder necessarily constituted him a leader 
in Israel, as well as an official director in the affairs of 
his Conference. He, of course, became familiar with 
the standing of every preacher, as well as with the 
whims, caprices and prejudices of the people, and in 
making the appointments for his districts from year to 
year, he often suffered in mind the most painful agita- 



270 



tions, because lie could not always meet the wishes of 
the people^ or send the preachers where he would like 
to^ and where he believed they ought to have gone. 

The annual changes which were common in most of 
the Conferences^ during the days of his Presiding 
Elder administration^ made the duties of such an offi- 
cer oftentimes exceedingly unpleasant^ particularly 
when he came to make out the appointments for thQ 
coming year. The Presiding Elders of the other dis- 
tricts of the Conference, of course^ had their own 
respective interests to guard; and while the Bishop, 
as was most generally the case, had no ax to grind, or 
partialities to show, made no troublesome interferences, 
still the natural conflicts of equal claims on the part of 
both preacher and people, rendered the duties espe- 
cially onerous to men of warm sympathies and honest 
natures, such as Mr. Havens possessed. 

The cabinet of a Bishop, though composed of the 
best men of the Conference as Presiding Elders, vvdll 
have its conflicts as well as its official honors. Xo one 
need imagine that it is an easy matter to station one or 
two hundred preachers. The interests of the work 
must be looked after, and with sensible men this con- 
sideration is and should be paramount to all others. 
As far as is possible, the wants and wishes of the 
people should be met, and this can ordinarily only be 
done by appointing the right men to the right places. 
If this is done, some will think they have been over- 
looked, or, at least, that they have not been properly 
appreciated. That there are and have been mistakes 
made no one acquainted with the work will deny. 



271 



Infallibility has never yet been claimed in any depart- 
ment of Methodism^ and in this of making the ap- 
pointments from year to year^ the good sense and 
judgment of even the best of Presiding Elders may 
sometimes fail them. 

We have often conversed with Mr. Havens upon 
this subject, and heard him express himself fully and 
freely in regard to his own district, his preachers and 
those of the Conference. His frankness in regard to 
the disqualifications of some men for certain fields and 
positions, which they greatly desired, may have some- 
times lost him friends, but he had too much sterling 
honesty about him and too great a regard for the good 
of the work and the honor of Methodism, to flatter 
the stupid, or to pander to the preacher whose personal 
aspirations excelled the measure of his intelligence. 
Still he was ever lenient toward the sincere, the honest 
and devoted ; and the preacher of misfortune found in 
him a friend on whom he could rely, as well as an ad- 
visor who would give him the counsel of a father. 

It was the lot of Mr. Havens several times during 
the long period of his Presiding Eldership, to have to 
stand in the official position of prosecutor among some 
of his brethren, but what he did in this relationship 
was done conscientiously, as aycII as fearlessly; and 
while performing his duty in these specific cases, he 
never seemed to be impelled by any other motive than 
that of the honor and purity of the church, for he had 
no desire to put down or crush any innocent man. 

He knew that Methodist preachers could do wrong 
as well as other men, and his doctrine was that if they 



272 



did^ they should suffer the penalty of that wrong as 
certainly as any others. This position he. was always 
ready to maintain^ no matter who might be the trans- 
gressor; and if, in any such instances^ he ever lost 
friends^ he considered himself none the poorer^ but on 
the other hand he felt that he had vinicated what he 
understood to be the cause of God and his own con- 
sistency and self-respect. 

Both as a man and a Christian^ he was too inde- 
pendent and fearless to purchase public favor at the 
expense of his own moral manhood^ and on this ac- 
count some have spoken of him with but little respect^ 
who otherwise^ no doubt^ would have been quite syco- 
phantic admirers. 

The fact that he several times represented his An- 
nual Conference in the higher counsels of the General 
Conference^ on a majority vote of his brethren^ gives 
assurances of their confidence both in his intelligence 
and integrity^ and also sustains the principle that the 
uniform adherence of an honest man to the truth and 
the right^ will win for him the respect of the respect- 
able and the confidence of the honorable. 

This distinguished confidence he had among the 
people always in an eminent degree^ and wherever he 
went^ he was received by them not only as an apostolic 
minister^ but as a Christian gentleman^ who never had 
any compromises to make with sin^ or any fulsome flat- 
teries to pay to sinners. 

On one occasion^ while on the Greensburg District, 
he noticed that he had all the lawyers in town in his 
congregation except Judge Davidson^ then of the Su- 



273 



preme Court The Monday following^ passing by the 
Juclge^s office, and seeing him and Mrs. Davidson sit- 
ting by the table, he stepped in the door^ and^ after 
saluting them both^ he said: 

Judge Davidson^ seeing you and your wife here in 
the office^ I just thought I would stop and tell you what 
I thought of you to your face.^* 

Yrell^ Mr, Havens/^ said the Judge, straightening 
himself up and looking the venerable clergyman eye 
to eye, ^^let us hear your judgment. 

Well^ Judge/^ remarked Mr. Havens^ I think 
you are one of the worst Christians in this town.^^ 
Then pausing and looking sternly in the face of the 
Judge, ^^and yet, after all/^ he added, ^^I believe, 
Judge, you are one of the best citizens of the place. 

Judge Davidson but seldom ever attended the 
church, and he did not make any profession of being 
a Christian; still all who knew him gave him the 
credit of being a conscientious and honest man. 

It was the purpose of Mr. Havens, no doubt, to 
draw the Judge's thoughts to the distinction, which he 
deemed iniportant, between the honesty of a Christian 
life and that of a good citizen. The one, in Mr. 
Havens' viev^, would save in this world, but the other 
he taught vras necessary to save in the world beyond. 
The honesty of the reproof, however, was characteris- 
tic of the man. 



24 



274 



CHAPTER XXVII- 

MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE MAN. 

In our efforts to vindicate the character of Mr, 
Havens, and to give the true animus of the raan^ it 
may be necessary for us to say ^^dlat he was not as well 
as to affirm what he was; for though he was^ as we 
have already written, decidedly affirmative in all his 
movements, he was not possessed, as some have sup- 
posed, of that litigious and aggressive spirit which 
many have so recklessly attributed to him. With 
him aggression was usually founded upon provo- 
cation, and when he made attacks, it was because he 
felt called upon to do so, either to maintain the prin- 
ciples of truth which he professed himself, or the rights 
and privileges which belonged to those whom he led. 

Under all circumstances, he never seemed to forget 
that he was a minister of religion, and in this capacity 
and profession he felt that the obligation was upon 
him to especially stand by the people. With him such 
an office was neither a sinecure nor a position of 
cowardice, even though it was that of the Christian 
ministry, and, therefore, he did not always deem it his 
duty to deal in soft or honeyed words with every class 
of characters. To the rough and insubordinate, he 
often dealt out their own sort of medicine, and on a 
few rare occasions he has been known to have used 
even more than mere moral force to bring them into 
subjection. Unlike many others of his brethren in the 
ministry, he was not disposed to take an insult with- 



275 



out in some way resenting it. Xot that he \vished for 
contention or strife^ but because he did not believe in 
yielding to the impositions of the unprincipled, or of 
bowing to the onslaughts of the .abandoned. 

In many instances he felt satisfied that those who 
were so thoughtless and unlawful as to attempt the 
interruption of the religious services of the people, 
whom he was serving as a minister, were cowards at 
heart, and would soon give way, particularly if any 
sort of a bold front was presented before them. It 
was this conviction which sometimes led him to assume 
positions of danger, where his friends often feared for 
his personal safety. 

The numerous stories which have been told all over 
the State, of his knocking men down and whipping 
them, and which, in some instances, have even been 
given to the press, are for the most part without any 
foundation in fact, and we presume have been told 
more to display the powers of writers or to gratify the 
Munchausen genius of narrators, than either to build 
up the reputation of the minister or to do credit to 
the real courage of the man. 

Many of these incredible stories have been told so 
often and been repeated by men of such reputed 
veracity, that it will, perhaps, be difficult to disabuse 
the public mind and convince it of their utter falsity. 
Mr. Havens was not a fighter or a bully, for but few 
men loved peace and friendship more highly than he 
did, and yet he vrould not sufi'er himself or his congre- 
gations to be imposed upon. If im])udence and ignor- 
ance attempted to break in upon tlie rights or privi- 



276 



leges of his people^ he believed it to be his duty to 
read thera a lesson in moral reform in some way, and 
this he often did in words which were understood to 
^4iave the bark on.'^ 

Many who lived in Indiana forty years ago, were 
often irregular and disorderly, particularly at camp 
meetings, w^ho, w^hen at home, would have been 
ashamed of any such misconduct. This Mr. Havens 
W'ell knew, and therefore he had no fears of personal 
injury from them. He believed them to be cowards, 
and v\dth a little strategic management he often 
brought them ^^to their oats,^^ as he used to term it^ 
without much ceremony. 

Some in telling of his subjugation of the notorious 
Buckhart at a camp meeting near Indianapolis, many 
years ago, have represented that ^^he knocked the 
athletic bully down three times, and took from him 
a large bowie knife, and then handed him to the con- 
stable'^ when the simple facts were as we have already 
given them in another chapter. He did not strike the 
man at all, and, besides, Buckhart had no knife about 
him. His own fearlessness and a little strategy made 
Buckhart a prisoner without much effort, and the col- 
orings which have been given to this little incident, 
like many other things told in history, may all be set 
down to the credit of the too common apocryphal 
genius of the country. 

Mr. Havens' knowledge of his own rights and his 
indomitable personal courage in maintaining them, 
made him quite conspicuous before the people as a 
man of fearless spirit, w^hen he himself laid no claim 



277 



to anvtliing more than a mere conscientious regard for 
the rights and privileges of the people. It was this 
heroic spirit which gave him the reputation of being 
a somewhat dangerous minister to deal with^ and 
impressed many with the idea that he would not pause 
long on the edge of a fight unless it was throu^2:h 
policy, until he would strike, no matter who the oppo- 
nent might be. But those who made such inferences 
really did not know the man : for even when he 
appeared to be the most positive in his positions^ he 
expected only to conquer a peace by the display of 
firmness rather than by any coercive measures. 

Many persons out of the Church, who did not know 
him^ thought he would fight, particularly in an emer- 
gency^ and^ therefore^ they were afraid of him^ and it 
was this conception of his character which gave him 
such positive rule over them. The religious portion 
of the people, however^ loved and obeyed him through 
reverence: and through these two antagonistic influ- 
ences he often swayed the vast camp meeting assem- 
blies which were at times before him, as the trees of 
the forest are moved in the presence of the storm. 

Ordinarily. Mr. Havens was as mild and placid, as 
kind and social, as any of the ministers of his Confer- 
ence; and it was only when there was a coming or 
surrounding storm that the iion was aroused within 
him. On such occasions he would show a spirit of 
resolve, a purpose of command, which made the timid 
tremble. AVhen stich circumstances did occur under 
his jurisdiction the man was sunk in the hero, and the 
bold preacher looked as if he would, Peter like, cut 



278 



some fellow^s ear off before he was through with the 
imbroglio. It v>TiS this spirit of determination and dar- 
ing which^ doubtless^ gave Mr. Havens his chief promi- 
nence among his brethren^ as most of them, governed 
as they were by the more conservative obligations of 
the Christian life, preferred to yield to boisterous 
opposition rather than to fight it, while he dared to 
maintain his rights under all circumstances, because he 
believed that a vigorous vindication of principle was 
much more pious and honorable than any cowardly 
yielding could be to the demands of presumptive arro-^ 
gance, or even to the not less dubious claims of insin- 
cere piety. 

Prayers and soft w^ords may work reforms among 
the cultivated and considerate, but it is often the case 
now, and it was much more so years ago, that men of 
the baser sort are only held in decent subjection by 
some positive and visible power. It was this order of 
government that Mr. Havens was called upon to exer- 
cise, and hence many who witnessed his command- 
ing generalship on such occasions, received the impres- 
sion that he would be as ready to use physical force to 
accomplish his purposes as that of the higher char- 
acter. 

The ministers of the present day can have but feeble 
conceptions of what the early preachers had to pass 
through in the pioneer work of their ministry. Then 
there were but few churches in which meetings could 
be held, and on this account they often had to resort to 
the woods, particularly on popular occasions, where the 
usual restraints of religious services were but indiffer- 



279 



ently acknowledged^ and it was not an uncommon 
cireiimstance that the ministry found that the main- 
tainance of good order was the most difficult task they 
had to perform. Every one in those days went to 
meeting, and the gathered crowds presented an ap- 
pearance as diversified and motley, as our modern 
coimty fairs, and the preachers were, representatively, 
responsible for the good order of the crowd. 

On siicli occasions it was frequently the case^ that 
^* Satan appeared there also/'' in the shape of gamblers, 
horse racers, whisky peddlers^ and scoffers of all reli- 
gious ceremonies, and the work of regulating and 
governing such discordant elements^ and at the same 
time conducting the religious services, was certainly no 
-ordinary obligation. 

The panoramic display of such religiotis gatherings, 
wonld in these days frighten many of our timid and 
conservative divines, either into personal flight or 
moral spasms^ for such a school would be as novel to 
them^ as the chase of the antelope over the plains.'' 
But few of them would know what steps to take to 
still the multitudes^ or to feed with the bread of life 
the sincere and the hungry. Yet these and similar 
scenes^ were familiar to most of our early itinerants^ 
and tliey were^ therefore, in some degree, often com- 
pelled to assume the command of the alien^ as well as 
the saint, in the fulfillment of their mission. 

To manage such meetings and to conduct them 
decently and in order^ recjuired much more than mere 
pulpit talents, and the heroic ardor with which they 
were o^overned and which made them so Q;rand a success 



280 



in the moral advancement of our western civilization^ 
should certainly not be overlooked in any biographical 
sketches we may make of any of our pioneer ministers. 

What they did in the reformation of these uncouth 
and native elements^ was like the workmanship of 
those who lay the foundations of stately edifices. The 
material was rough and was often neither oblong nor 
square/^ and might have been justly rejected by the 
builders ; but it was not^ and the consequence has been 
that many of our present most intelligent divines^ 
mighty if they would^ trace their own genealogies back 
to some of these original, rough foundation stones, 
which were used in the elementary building of the 
church in the West, 

Mr. Havens was himself a specimen of this class> 
which he always well remembered^ and it was perhaps 
on this account^ he felt it to be his particular per- 
sonal obligation never to pass by or overlook even 
the roughest classes of men. He well understood 
it was natural for men to be sinners^ and that if the 
evil could be taken out of them they would become as 
good and true and perhaps as prominent in useful- 
ness as they ever had been in vice or immorality. 

But his conflicts were not all with the rougher 
classes. He^ in some instances^ met men whose posi- 
tions in society^ and whose relationships in the ministry^ 
should have taught them how to treat a brother minister 
at least^ but it seems they had not^ for he used to tell 
a story of one who officiated at a certain Conference^ as 
" the stationed preacher/^ in assigning the members to 



281 



their boarding places during its sessions who certainly 
fell below the mark. 

This man of authority had sent him away on the 
outskirts of the town to put up with a family Avhere 
there was neither accommodations for man or horse. 
Of course he felt that it would be an imposition upon 
the family as well as upon himself to remain, and 
thanking the wife and mother of the large family^ for 
any trouble he may have given her, he reported him- 
self to the stationed preacher as being without a home. 
That gentleman being of the class whose own personal 
interests absorb all of their usual capacity, offered him 
no relief, and informed him he would have to find a 
home for himself. Mounting his horse, he rode up to 
a_ tavern in the town and hitching his horse to the sign 
post, he entered the bar room^ where he found the 
landlord. " Landlord,^^ said he, can you take care of 
me and my horse during the session of our Conference 
and take your pay in silver when it is over? 

Yes, certainly, I can/^ was the prompt response. 
His horse was put away, and a nice private room was 
at once assigned him. The landlord and his wife and 
daughter treated him with the utmost kindness during 
the session of the Conference, and at its close refused 
any remuneration. Mr. Havens felt that he had settled 
with his kind and generous host, and he thought it 
might do some good in the future to have some sort of 
a one with the stationed preacher. Seeing him in the 
Conference room, he approached and addressed him. 

Brother,^^ said he, I wish to thank you for the 
very cool treatment you have shown me during this 



282 



Conference. Your conduct has convinced me that 
your personal devotions are perhaps equal to those of 
any meraber of our Conference, and I merely wish to 
suggest to you that^ in the future^ it perhaps would be 
better for you to divide them a little/^ 

But few Methodist preachers could make such frank 
remarks to a delinquent brother with greater self- 
possession than Mr. Havens, and though it was not 
often he was called upon to perform such duty^ yet^ 
wdien he was, he did not hesitate to speak plainly, no 
matter what might be the personal pretensions of the 
reproved. 

That he sometimes erred in his rebukes, may be 
acknowledged, without any detriment to his character, 
for all who knew him well, were fully satisfied that he 
never aimed to rebuke or wound any one wantonly. 
It is true, in his frank independence, he sometimes 
said severe things, but he said them because he believed 
them to be true, and because their frank utterance was 
called for by the demands of virtue, and by the requi- 
sitions of honesty and the public welfare. It was this 
candor and personal independence which doubtless 
led many to believe he was iron willed and over- 
bearing. They saw him perhaps only when he moved 
upon the great line of his ministerial purposes, or 
it may have been when he had taken his stand antag- 
onistic to some moral delinquency. On such occasions 
it was not characteristic of him to either shrink from 
responsibility, for fear of the popular favor, or to hesi- 
tate in his prosecutions of the guilty from any false 
pride or sympathy. 



283 



For generous as he ^vas impulsive^ and brave as he 
was honorable^ he scorned to become an accessory 
in wrong by preaching cowardly indulgences. His 
faith was that God vrould stand by the innocent and 
would briuG: him out in the end the conoueror. ^* If 
you are innocent/^ we once lieard him say to a brother 
in an hour which seemed as dark as death itself — ^^Goil. 
will brino; vou throuoii vour troubles as safelv as he 
did the three Hebrew children fj^om the fiery furnace. 
This same brother^ after passing through an ordeal of 
trial such as no minister in Indiana ever realized before 
or since^ holds his relationship in the Conference^ and 
stands redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled.*^ In 
this case Mr. Havens was a prophet as v\^ell as a com- 
forter. 

Mr. Havens^ confidence in the ecjuity of the divine 
government led him to the faith that honesty was the 
best policy in peace as vv'ell as in war^ and therefore^ 
he was not disposed to swerve from it either to accom- 
modate a friend or to prosecute an enemy. 

That some men hated him we do not doubt^ and 
tliat some yet living nnay greatly nnderrate his claims 
upon the public gratitude^ now that he is dead^ is per- 
haps equally as probable. But all such men have none 
of the elements of greatness in themselves^ and on this 
account it is difncult for them to see them in others. 
This *^^dog in the manger spirit is sometimes seen 
even in the ministry; bnt we have always noticed^ 
no matter what department of life they officiate in^ 
they are never willing to accord the meed of superi- 
ority, or of o;reatness, to anv who are or who liave been 



284 

their own immediate associates. Their jealousy over- 
tops the liberality of their sentiments^ and consequently 
they open not their lips to give utterance to eulogy^ 
particularly if the subject has been one of their own 
competitors. 

If the w^orld had been full of such men^ Father 
Havens would have gone down to his grave without a 
monument^ and the pen of his biographer would have 
rested in silence forever for the want of a theme. 



285 



CHAPTER XXA^II. 

ITIXEEAXT EEYIEW. 

The preaching of the gospel to the poor is Heaven\s 
best recognition of the true mission of the Church. 
This^ in fact^ is its primary object^ and always its 
highest obligation^ ancl^ therefore, where the poor are 
left out in its services^ God himself is undoubtedly 
ignored in the sarnie proportion. Even humanity looks 
after the sufferings and the higher Divinity certainly 
can not fall below this standard. 

What the Church does for the rich is paid for dol- 
lar for dollar/^ and, therefore, what she does for the 
poor constitutes her only credit. Human greatness 
may croAvn her with honors^ but true spiritual sympa- 
thy for the poor^ the fallen^ and the guilty^ can alone 
give evidence of her inspiration. 

Indeed^ it may be said that the Church makes Infi- 
dels of men when she serves only the rich^ for they 
become her governors^ as well as the chief samples of 
her piety^ and the consequent reflection makes but a 
poor comment on both her zeal and character. Good 
men have seen these resaks^ and have often mourned 
over them. Many have sought to remedy such evils 
by substituting new orders of benevolence^ and by 
inculcatino; a hiofher missionarv zeal. But in defiance 
of their efforts the Church has grown richer, and her 
clergy more selfish and aristocratic, while the poor, by 
the million, have been left to wander uncared for on 
the mountains of desolation. 



286 



When Mr. John Wesley beo;an the work of his 
itinerancy in Eno^land, thouo^h it was thought to be 
irregular by the Church, many were made hopeful 
that a brighter era was about to dawn upon the world. 
True^ many in the higher walks of life looked upon his 
itinerant scheme of spreading the gospel as being both 
visionary and fanatical^ but the poor of England 
hailed it almost everywhere as a millenial issue. They 
gave audience to his preaching in gathered thousands, 
and many became his follo\Yers. Organization ensued, 
as a forced consequence, and the simple societies of 
Mr. Wesley grew in a few years to be the most effi- 
cient body of religious workmen in the kingdom. 

It was the grand result of his plan of itinerancy in 
connection with his employment of men in the min- 
istry, who were uneducated. Personal and moral 
qualifications were made the chief and essential requi- 
sites for the work, and the old evangelism became the 
rule of their characters — ^^by their fruits ye shall 
know them.^^ 

This peculiar feature of Methodism has done more 
to advance the moral civilization of the people of 
Europe and America, than many are willing to admit 
of. Even the facts of history sustain the assertion that 
the civilized world has everyv/here felt its power. 

However irregular it may have been deemed, or 
however its ignorance may have been laughed at, it 
has kindled the flame of Christian love in the hearts 
of millions, and made the world better through the 
grand efficiency of its itinerant ministry. 

Men have been employed to preach who had never 



287 



seen a college^ and if they did not understand the 
^' dead languages/^ they made good use of the living 
one^ as well as full proof of their ministry/*^ 

The mission of this scriptural evangelism among the 
people of our own country just at the period when 
they were about to lay the foundations of a new 
empire^ vv'as both opportune and fortunate. The peo- 
ple were poor and the country thinly settled^ and the 
itinerant plan of spreading the gospel alone could 
meet the emergency. 

Like the men who bore the stars and stripes in 
defense of the liberties of the people and the inde- 
pendence of the Republic^ the primitive Methodist 
preachers^ gave themselves to the work without pay 
and for the cause alone. The heroism of their services 
ecjualed the soldiers' valor^ and the fervency of their 
zeal gave them as numerous and complete victories. 

But what Methodism has done in the East is not our 
theme. AVe only wish^ in a brief way^ to here speak 
of its introduction into the AVest^ where its fiekb which 
but a few years ago was a wilderness^ has now become 
a magnificent and prosperous empire, ♦ 

With others^ we feel that we owe a debt of remem- 
brance and gratitude to the early ministers of the 
AYest^ of all churches^ which we will never be able to 
pay. Those ministers of the wilderness are novr all 
dead, and we can only rescue them from oblivion by 
the patient investigations of unwritten history. Work- 
ing for eternity rather than for time^ but few of them 
made any record of their deeds or doiags and conse- 



288 



quently many of them have gone down to their graves 
the unmerited victims of a dreamless obscurity. 

With most of them the struggles of life were among 
the undeveloped resources of the v/ilderness, w^iere 
fame had never yet built a temple^ and where the con- 
ventional rules of church etiquette were as yet a dead 
letter. 

Of the mission of Methodism^ of which we wish to 
speak more particularly, we may state that its intro- 
duction among the western pioneers was attended with, 
personal exposures and numerous sacrifices, such as the 
pen of the historian may now never describe. 

The entire country was a wilderness, and the smoke 
of the red man^s wigwam was often the only evidence 
that it was occupied by a human inhabitant. The 
sparse settlements of the white man who had come as 
a pioneer to take up his home in the AVest, made the 
only preaching places of the brave missionary. 

At his own expense and personal risk, with no com- 
pany but that of his favorite horse, he passed from 
settlement to settlement hunting up ^Hhe lost sheep of 
the bt)use of Israel,^^ and faring with the humble 
inhabitants on the wild game of the forests. 

In most instances they were welcomed with the most 
sincere cheerfulness, and the best their log cabins could 
afford w^as kindly set before them. The settlers recog- 
nized them as God^s messengers, and consequently 
treated them with respect and reverence. Of course 
there were occasional exceptions to these rules in their 
travels, but even when they did occur, in most instances 



289 



the preacher maintained his ground long enough to 
tell the story of his mission. 

Preaching in these primitive wilderness temples, the 
preacher read his hymns and lessons by the light that 
came down the chimney, or else the door of the cabin 
was left open to give the necessary light to the whole 
congregation. It was not true in the West that 

The groves were God's fij^st temples," 

for they were only resorted to in emergencies when the 
congregations became too large to be crowded into 
cabins. For years many of the cabins and better 
dwellings of the western pioneers were the only meet- 
ing houses of religious worship known to the itinerant. 
He preached, ate and slept all in the same room, and 
not unfrequently the father and mother of the family, 
with a half dozen or more children, enjoyed with him 
the same accommodations. Necessity made families 
liberal in those early times, as well as devout and 
reverential towards the ministers of religion. Many 
gave up their dwellings for religious meetings from 
two to four days in a month, and often after the ser- 
vices were over, nearly the whole congregation, on 
invitation of the generous housekeeper, would stop 
and take dinner with the preacher. 

Such hospitality is in striking contrast w^ith that 
which has obtained in some of our fine steepled^ 
organ-choired and rich aristocratic churches of the 
present day, where the strange preacher, after deliver- 
ing his sermon to an ^^intelligent audience,'^ is coldly left 
to hunt up his own dinner. To sustain us in this rather 
25 



290 

sarcastic reflection, we will here remark that a num- 
ber of ministers^ whose experience has been their tutor^ | 
have assured us that ^^such facts of history can not 
well be gainsay ed. 

Hospitality was a distinguished trait of the early - 
pioneers. They had but little^ but they well under- ' 
stood the laws of reciprocity, and w4ien a stranger \ 
came to their doors, they gave him the welcome of the j 
western hunter, that was ^^to eat once what they had |j 
to live on all the time if they could relish it.'^ [ 

In such homes as these the early itinerant found his i] 
congregations, and his resting places, and his greatest 
difficulty, was to go from neighborhood to neighbor- 
hood without being drowned, or frozen to death, or 
swamped in some quagmire. In such cases his favor- 
ite charger was his main reliance, and often he had 
such confidence in the superior intelligence of his 
horse that he would trust to his decisions when he j 
would not have done so even to a Bishop. jj 

Indian paths and sometimes notched roads were the | 
usual lines of his travel, though now and then, he was 
compelled to take to the woods to reach his preaching 
place, y/here his only guide were the points of the 
compass. 

Swollen creeks and rivers had to be crossed, which 
he often did by swimming his horse, at the risk of life, 
and in some instances the clothes on his body would 
be frozen stiff before he could reach a habitation. 

One of Mr. Havens^ colleagues, Henry B. Bascom, 
once swam his horse with himself on his back across a i 
river of this kind on a cold winter's day, and having j 



! 



291 



to ride five miles after he had crossed, it was with 
great difficulty he could get his clothes from his body 
when he arrived at his cabin destination. 

It was of such stuff' as this that many of the early 
Methodist preachers were made. They were dauntless 
in the presence of any obstacle^ and their daring intri- 
pidity but seldom quailed in their attempt to overcome 
it. The physical courage of many of these unpre- 
tending itinerants was fully equal to their moral 
heroism^ and though neither learned nor eloquent as 
may be said of many of them^ they did a work of 
moral achievement which the glory of a thousand 
battle fields can not eclipse^ and which no human 
honors can ever properly reward. 

Fifty years ago, the itinerancy, though somewhat 
improved, had still about it much of the exposure and 
danger of wild adventure. The same creeks and 
rivers were to ford, for there were still but few ferries 
or bridges, and though appointments were not so 
distant, thev were much more numerous, and still 
far enough apart^ to give the preacher long rides almost 
every day in the year besides preaching and leading 
class some thirty times a month. 

But few of the people of the present period have any 
just conceptions of what these early Methodist preach- 
ers and their families were called upon to endure. Even 
the ministers of to-day who, in most instances^ are so 
happily situated, have but limited ideas of what the 
fathers had to pass through. For what circuits were 
then, and what they are now, may only be known by 
the law of extreme contrasts. Then, what is called a 



I 



parsonage was unknown^ and when the preacher j 
arrived in his work with his family^ he was subjected | 
to whatever hospitality might be offered him^ and j 
until, he ^^with the advice and counseP^ of frequently . 
very indifferent " stewards/^ could hunt up a house of 
some sort, he and his family were adrift on the kind- 
ness, whatever it might be, of the people. - \ 

Even in this State, it has often occurred that ' 
preachers were thrown by their annual appointments 
from one side of the State to the other, and in such 
cases the preacher realized the great advantage of that 
happy apothegm, Blessed is the preacher who has 
nothing, for he can be moved to any distance. 

These frequent and long removals from one circuit \ 
to another constituted, perhaps^ the hardest trials of 
many of these old itinerants. For just as they were 
getting comf3rtably fixed in their parsonage homes, j 
and becoming acquainted with the people of their I 
charges, the Conference has called upon them to go to I 
another field where, perhaps, they were total strangers, 1 
and where it was more than probable there would be I 
no provision whatever made for their reception. 

Still it would not answer for them to complain or 
murmur, or find fault with the appointing power, for 
the die was cast for that year, and if they backed out, 
or refused to accept the appointment given them, the 
days of their itinerancy were perhaps ended. At this 
very point many hundreds have given up the itinerancy, 
and though they have afterwards filled useful posi- ■ 
tions in the local ranks, their names have only been 
subject to merely local recognitions. 



293 



Though the local ministry of our American Metho- 
dism has ahyays been respectable, it has not had any 
of the usual advantages of emolument or distinction 
which have belonged ex officio to the itinerancy. Their 
position has not been looked upon as being as sacred 
or as sacrificing as that of the itinerancy, and, there- 
fore, it has been thought that their claims upon the 
Church entitled them to no particular distinctions. 
Such, as least, has been the usual order of the admin- 
istration of the Church, and we presume the reason 
for it has been that the itinerancy could alone give 
and preserve to the church its high and aggressive 
character. 

In the earlier days, however, but few preachers were 
local in their labors of any rank, for even those who 
did not belong to the itinerancy were nevertheless 
itinerant. On the Sabbath they went everywhere 
preaching the word, and many of them whom we have 
known have deserved monuments of renown far above 
others who have even lived and died in the itinerant 
work. 

It takes something more than mere station in life to 
give some men character, while there are others who 
will push their way up to celebrity in any position. 
They do not seek it, but it seeks them. They are true 
to tliemselves and stand to their positions. Hence, 
honors come upon them, because their fidelity equals 
their integrity and character is awarded them because 
they have in their place proven themselves ready and 
sufficient for any emergency. 

It is on this basis that character, above the ordinary 



294 

rank was so largely accorded to Father Havens. The 
people knew him as a man and as a Christian, and as 
an itinerant Methodist preacher. As such they loved 
him, had confidence in him, and reverenced him. 
Among Methodist preachers he was their hero, and as 
such they felt that they could trust him for advice and 
counsel whether living or dying. I 

The itinerancy was the field of his lifers activity^ j 
and in its toils and labors he spent his years as faith- j 
fully and honorably and with as much regard for the j 
church of God and the salvation of souls as any min- \ 
ister, perhaps, who has ever been known in the State. | 

The wide fields which he has occupied and the | 
distinctive part he has taken in the work of the min- ] 
istry made him better known to the people tlian any | 
minister who has been connected w^ith the Indiana - 
itinerancy. j 

For nearly fifty years he was engaged in the Avork j 
and though he never made pretensions of being a | 
great man he was nevertheless styled such by many of | 
the greatest and best men of his day. 

Among the last public services of Father Havens^ 
life was the preaching of a sermon on the funeral occa- 
sion of the late Hon. Samuel W. Parker, of Conners- 
ville. They had long been ardent and mutual friends 
and though Mr, Parker was much the youngest man, 
he died first, and his old war-worn friend was invited , 
by the family to officiate on the solemn occasion. 

To hold the confidence of such a man as Mr. Parker 
was a compliment in itself, of the very highest char- 
acter. For he was no ordinary man either in thought 



295 



or judgment. A consumate reader of character, he 
had full confideDce in Father Havens' sincerity and 
integrity as a Christian and minister^ and it was his 
dying wish that he should attend his funeral. 

It was thus he saw one after another of his old and 
tried friends with w^hom he had formed acquaintance 
while he was in the active itinerant field^ passing away, 
and he could but feel sad at the rapid changes which 
time was making around him. The good and the 
excellent of his earlier years were passing in swift 
succession before him and he began to feel that he too 
was standing on the brink of the mysterious river and 
that the very next boat perhaps w^ould carry him over. 

The spirit of his hope was on the wing, and his 
thoughts, vvhich had been so long on the itinerancy of 
men, began to feed on the greater glories of the itin- 
erancy of the angels. 

His hopes were, that he should never locate, for he 
remembered with gladness the interrogation of St. 
Paul, " Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth 
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? 
This he hoped w^ould continue his itinerancy forever. 



296 



CHAPTER XXIX. 1 

SUPERANNUATED YEARS. i 

The regular active labors of Mr. Havens in the ij 

itinerancy ended at the September Conference of 1855, | 

when his third fall term of four years was closed on I 

the Indianapolis District, He was then only in his i 

sixty-fifth year, which should not be considered as an | 

advanced or superannuated age in the ministry ; for at j 

this period of life many have their ripest thoughts of I 

wisdom/ and often carry with them still their lifers J 

richest influences. Physically, Mr. Havens was not j 

the man he had been, and it may be that his mental | 

powers were more or less abated because of his nerv- j 

ous debility, but still he yet retained his faculties of i 

thought in evident manhood, and had about him much : 
of the touching and venerable fire of his earlier years. 

The over-weening and evident haste which is some- 
times manifested by some of the Conferences to place | 
their old men on the superannuated list, to say the least i 
of it, will not always bear the most charitable con- 
struction; and though it may be truthfully recorded 
on the minutes, ^' superannuated at his own request,'^ 
yet even this does not say that it should have been | 
done, for it is frequently the case that the old and ven- ' 
erable minister, who has fought through the exciting j 
campaigns of more than two score of years, finds it | 
one of the hardest battles of his life to quit the field, and i 
more especially is this true if he gets the impression j 
that his younger brethren want him out of the way. * 



297 



Tlie sensitive tenderness of the aged should certainly 
always be most carefaily guarded, paticularly where 
they have endured the noble sacrifices of ihe pioneer^ 
and made such a record of personal sufferings as the 
present advancements of our civilization prohibit their 
successors from ever following in their footsteps, or 
of giving: themselves anv similar honors. 

Father Havens was one of the heroes of Indiana 
Methodism, and with the earlier ministers he had been 
identified as a brother^ and with them he had fought 
the battles of Israel when the wilderness bounded 
every side of his circuits^ and the horse and the saddle- 
bags were his daily companions. The hmmble cabins 
of the pioneer settlers were the only temples of his 
devotions^ and the ra.ttling of cow bells gave him the 
best assurances that he was nearing his preaching 
places. Often pun:^^kins and cow fodder were the 
best feed he could obtain for his favorite charger^ wdiile 
his own entertainment consisted of fare of the most 
unpretending character. 

The brave old soldier never forgets his hardest cam- 
paigns^ and often in memory^ at least, he fights over 
his most terrific battles. What and all he has gone 
through in fire and flood, in sufferings and hardships, 
in companionships, and life toils, come up before him 
afresh, and he can not but feel sad when he comes to 
lay off his armor and retire for the rest of his years to 
the inoperative shades of private life. 

To quit the field of active labor, and retire to that 
of a superannuated relation, requires more passive phi- 
losophy than most men imagine^ and^ on this account^ 
^26 



298 

i 

we have often thought that those who fall on the field ^ 
of battle^ though they seemingly die prematurely, may | 
be classed among the fortunates^ for they certainly f 
escape the ordeal of a trying retirement^ which, in , 
some respects, nearly always casts unpleasant shadows - 
along down the valley of declining years. 

To grow old gracefully, even in the ministry, is the 
lot, of only the few, for men often think themselves I 
able still to do battle in the vineyard when they are 
not, while not unfrequently, they fear that their suc- 
cessors will not prove true and faithful to the ancient 
land-marks. They forget, or appear not to know, that r 
each successive generation has its own peculiar idiosyn- I 
crasies, and that the laws of age, which are gradually ' 
bearing them on to the tomb, are in accordance with | 
the philosophy of all true developments, as well as of ^ 
all substantial progress. Rapid succession is the order 
of nature, and what one generation has accomplished , 
may never be counted a success, unless the next takes 
it up and carries it forward to its progressive andi 
legitimate issues. Principles may not change, and yet ; 
their full power is never seen under any one monoto-^ 
nous order. It is this necessity which demands the 
changes continually seen in successive generations. g 

"With these laws of progress Father Havens hadj 
some acquaintance, and when he saw, as he did in his^ 
superannuated years, the introduction of choirs andj, 
organs in the Methodist congregations of the country, , 
and of extended notes and written sermons in the j 
pulpits, he made no efforts to forestall them, furtherj | 
than to say that he had his fears that they would ulti-, ^ 



299 



mately lead to a formality very different from that of 
old fashioned Methodism. But stilly he did not argue 
that it would necessarily be the case^ for he was well 
aware that such things had been common among other 
respectable and highly useful denominations^ even for 
many years. 

In agreement with the education of his life^ he of 
course preferred the plain services of the earlier years^ 
and when he preached in any of the churches, as he 
sometimes did^ where these changes had been already 
introduced^ he made no allusions to them in his ser- 
mons. What he had to say was usually uttered to 
brethren in private^ and even then he said but little^ 
for he had too much good sense to suppose that he 
could beat back the tide of such a rapidly growing 
power. 

Indeed it was not his custom, even in his active 
days, to waste his amunition on ^he mere forms of 
religious services. Its spirit and principle, he well 
knew were the chief and essential points to be looked 
after, and these he hoped would be maintained as long 
as the church lasted. 

The old spirit of revival power, where it issued in 
sound conversions, and introduced into the church, 
true and faithful members, held his devotions above 
all the glittering displays of forms and ceremonies^ of 
ecclesiastical pride, or pagentry. He had seen Meth- 
odism grow up in the AYest, from the insignificant 
position of wide spread and disintegrated societies in 
the wilderness, to a church dignity fully equal to that 
of any other in the United States, ana while he beheld 



300 



it all^ his great wish was that it would never lose its 
old fashioned and grand reformatory energies. 

Though he had retired to his humble home in the 
town of Rushville^ where he had been residing for 
some years^ he still kept his eye on the work and he 
often felt that if some light field was given him^ he 
could yet do something for his master. 

For some six years^ he had held a superannuated ' 
relation^ when a vacancy occurred in the Strange 
Chapel^ charge of Indianapolis^ and he was unani- 
mously invited by that congregation to supply its 
pulpit for the rest of the year. • 

Accepting the call he brought his aged companion 
with him to the station^ and in the old style of the 
itinerancy, they went to house keeping in the par- 
sonage. 

In that church he found many to whom he had been 
preaching for mor«e than tliirty years. They knew 
him as a venerable Father in Israel, and during the 
year, they listened to his preaching with the very 
highest respect and reverence. Though bordering on f 
seventy in the years of his pilgrimage, he frequently ) 
evinced in his pulpit efforts the fires of his more } 
youthful years, crowds came to hear him, and many b 
Avho did not belong to the charge, for no minister of J 
the city was held in higher esteem, and but few had ^ 
greater power over their audiences. ^ 

In this field he exercised his last official functions, ^ 
as a minister, in charge of a congregation, and as it bore i 
the honored name of his old companion in the gospel 
ministry, Rev. John Strange, he was by a peculiar 



301 



providence closing his public labors in Indiana^ as he 
had begun them in intimate connection with the hon- 
ored name of the illustrious Strange. 

Xo Methodist preacher he had ever known held a 
holier place in his heart's best memories^ and he looked 
forward to Heaven itself for the renewal of their old 
fraternity, with a fondness of hope and a confidence of 
recognition, which no pen can well describe. Though 
thirty years had passed away since his beloved confrere 
had crossed the cold waters^ Father Havens still 
talked about him as if the separation had been of but 
recent occurrence. 

Finishing his labors in this temporary charge^ he 
returned again to his old home^ where he continued to 
preach as opportunity would permit him^ and on sev- 
eral occasions he visited distant parts of the State, 
where he had been invited by his old friends, who 
wished once more to hear his voice before he went 
hence to be seen no more among men. 

On such occasions he was honored among the people 
with much more than the usual reverence. Every class 
of Christians called upon him, and the most distin- 
guished citizens of the coimtry gave him their attention 
and resj)ect, because they saw that the time of his 
departure was near at hand, that he had fought a good 
fight, that he had honorably kept the faith as one of 
the pioneer heroes of Indiana Methodism and there- 
fore they felt that to honor him, - was an honor to 
themselves, and they gathered around him in his 
visitations as if he had been their own father. 

The pale features of the good old minister, in con- 



302 



nection with the almost snow- whiteness of his head, 
gave to many the conviction that he was much older 
than he really was. General John W.- Rose, formerly 
of Union county, but now residing in the town of 
Wabash, who is one of the oldest Master Masons in 
Indiana, and also a very warm and zealous Methodist^ 
said to us the year before Father Havens died : 

I met father Havens the other day on the cars. 
At first I scarcely knew him, and I went up to him 
and asked : 

'^s not this Father Havens 

^^Yes,^^ said the old gentleman; ^*they call me 
Father Havens. 

Wel],^^ said I to him, Father Havens, you must 
be getting to be quite an old man, for they have been 
calling you Father Havens ever since I ^ean remember. 
How'^old are you?^^ I asked. 

^^Well, General,^^ said he, ^^I am just seventy-three | 
years of age.^^ 

Why, is that all ri asked. 
That is my age, sir,^^ said he. 
^' You astonish me. Father Havens,^^ said I. 
^^Why/^ he asked. 

" Why,^^ said I to him, ^Hhey have been calling you 
Father Havens as far back as I can remember, and 
yet I am three years older than you are.'^ 

The good old General, like many others who had 
known Father Havens all their lives, judged from his 
looks that he w^as much older than he really was. 

Bat this misjudgment was not strange, for the abun- 
dant labors of the man, and the great wear on his 



303 



nervous system, had given him the appearance of 
premature age, and if he had not possessed a strong 
iron constitution, he would not have been the last to 
die of the early race of Indiana Methodist preachers. 

We remember, some twenty years before Father 
Havens' death, a speculating conversation which v\'e had 
with the then vigorous Allen Wiley, in regard to the 
probable length of the lives of Calvin W, Enter, James 
Havens, and that of his own. We both then thought 
that Father Havens would not live ten years, and that 
Mr. Ruter would not be long after him. 

Appearances were then greatly in favor of the lon- 
gevity of Mr, Wiley, as he was temperate and healthy, 
and as active as a boy in his teens. But the venerable 
Wiley died in 1848, when he was only fifty-eight 
years of age, and a superannuated preacher, and the 
lamented Enter passed away suddenly in the year 
1859, while Father Havens did not die until 1864. 

During most of Father Havens' superannuated 
years he stood alone. The hand of death had broken 
off all the old ministerial fraternities of his earlier 
years, and he was left in the Conference, the last relic 
of his class. 

He made it his duty notwithstanding, to attend each 
session of the Conference in which he held his mem- 
bership. In these annual convocations he had found, 
for many years, his dearest and warmest ministerial 
afl&liations. His yoniager brethren, who had been 
taught to reverence him in his former official relation 
of Presiding Elder, greeted him with manifestations 
of kindness and respect, and not a few of them looked 



304 



up to him as their father in the ministry. They ven- 
erated him for what he then was^ and honored him for 
what he had been. The oldest member of the Confer- 
ence^ and the most distinguished of the body^ there 
was none to envy him, or to do him dishonor. All 
felt that he had made his record^ and that the roll of 
the Conference bore no name more v/orthy of respect. 
He had carried the banner of the cross when most of 
them were in their cradles^ and now that his life story 
was about all told^ the tongues of eulogistic gratitude 
could alone do justice to his virtues. 

But it is not ahvays the case, even in annual Confer- 
ences of Methodist preachers, that full justice is done to ; 
the memory of a long life of sacrifices. Many appear to ! 
think that the reward of faithfulness is in the divine |i 
hands^ and therefore they seem to forget that respectful || 
veneration for valuable services rendered in the cause 
of Christ and humanity, is among the nobler virtues i; 
of the Christian life. ' 

But in these regards Father Havens, perhaps, had 
as little cause of complaint, as most any of his I 
departed compeers, for being the last of his age to die^ \ 
his junior brethren felt it to be a privilege to honor ' 
him, which they did with the tenderest sensibilities. 

The position of superannuation, however^ in the ' 
Methodist ministry is always rather anomalus, for 
it gives to its holder the relation of a dead man, 
while he is ye.t still living. With no field in which 
to act, and no responsibilities to keep him in life, he 
has nothing to live for^ in the way of public duty^ 



305 



and consequently^ all that remains for him is to take 
leave of the world and to lie down and die. 

As many of his brethren will remember^ no relation- 
ship vrhich the Church ever gave him was so trying 
to Father Havens as this. It was much like bury- 
ing him before he was dead^ and it was not at all 
strange that he sometimes complained of his coffin. 
It did not fit him^ because he was not yet ready for the 
grave. 

As we have already stated^ at sixty-five this relation 
was given him^ and though there was some of the 
" old man recognized about him^ yet the sound vigor 
of his venerable wisdom was still as strong in him as 
ever. 

The people knew him everywhere^, and no preacher 
in' the State excelled him in maintaining the public 
confidence^ or in the length and breadth of his per- 
sonal influence^ for he was everywhere known as a 

moral hero of a thousand battles/^ as one of the last 
relics of the old Indiana itinerant pioneers. 

But his heels were trod upon by the coming tramp 
of a younger race of itinerants^ who were full of life 
and ready for the battle^ and it only remained for him 
to retire from the work to give place to '^illustrious 
successors.-'' 



306 



CHAPTER XXX. j 

CHARACTER AND DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 

To the mothers of distinguished men^ biography 
has often given much more than the usual praise^ for to 4; 
their maternal wisdom and prudence may be traced ' 
the formation of early character^ the vitality of a ^ 
healthy ambition^ and the distinguished purity of sub- f 
sequent history. Nature gives them the power of ! 
making first impressions^ and filial regards not unfre- I 
quently render them continuous and lasting. The i 
acknowledgment of such power should always be I 
made with gratitude^ and the maternal source of it i 
should ever be faithfully honored* j 

But what shall we say of the equally sacred rela- 
tionship — the holy life-tie that gives to man his 
dearest bosom friend^ — who^ if she is true to herself^ 
is his hearth-counsellor^ his guiding star, and the 
crowning glory of his life's history ! 

The work of the wife and mother, in the sustenance 
and success of any public service the husband has 
rendered, is but seldom known, for what she is and 
what she has done may not well be measured. Her 
children may rise up and call her blessed, and in them 
the world may read something of her power, but what 
her influence over her husband has been, and to what 
extent she has contributed to his life's success, is too 
often only an unwritten chapter, which if the world 
knew at her death, her grave would doubtless be hon- ] 



I 
I 



307 



ored equally with that of her husband\s and the 
chaplets of fame bequeathed to the one would be as 
freely and as honorably bestowed upon the other. 

It is no doubt frequently the case that the public voice 
gives that praise to the man, the husband, for his vir- 
tuous integrity and personal success in life, which 
might be largely traced back to his home and hearth, 
where the wife has ruled in her gentleness and love, 
and where the mild sceptre of her influence has 
brought order out of confusion, and directed the steps 
of moral timidity in the highest paths of usefulnes and 
honor. 

It is not wealth or education, or fashionable accom- 
plishments, that make the good and prudential wife. 
It is the sound common sense, the virtuous purity and 
well governed disposition, which constitute her highest 
home and household endowments, and make her the 
inspiring source of her husband^s prosperity. 

She perhaps became his bride when he knew not the 
world, and the world knew nothing of him. The 
grass of spring was growing under his feet when their 
union began, and through all the changes and respon- 
sibilities of the seasons of life, she has been his bosom 
companion, and the most intimate partner of his joys 
and sorrows. 

The wife of Mr. Havens, to whom we wish here to 
pay a passing tribute of respect, was a pattern of 
plainness, as well as of simplicity. The artlessness 
of nature was always observable in her spirit, while 
her quiet manners and striking common sense consti- 
tuted the most prominent features of her character. 



308 j 

Honored as she only was with a mere domestic educa- 
tion, Mrs. Havens gave her whole life to her home and ; 
her children ; and according to her best convictions, ; 
she aimed to fulfill the obligations of a wife and 
mother. These were the relations of life which she felt 
to be chiefly binding upon her. The kindly sympathies i 
of neighborship, and of humanity, were instinctive \ 
with her, and to the needy and the wayfaring, she 
was always ready to extend her hand in the ministra- i 
tions of aid and kindness. 

To the world, the life of such a woman may seem to i 
be obscure, and the vicissitudes of her history be deemed ! 
unimportant, but to the honest and the thoughtful, ! 
there is a lesson of wisdom in the simplicity of such a 1 
character, and in the usefulness of such toils, from j 
which prudence may gather the instructions of wisdom, \ 
and even the most pretending might profit if they j 
would, in the simplicity of her experience. | 

Civilization always errs, w^hen the expectations of || 
life are based only upon the gifts of wealth, and where | 
happiness is counted on, because of mere educational j 
attainment and polish. The one, it is true, may impart 
the comforts of palatial splendor, and the other give 
to the social circle many of the appearances of a fash- 
ionable ecstasy, but after all, the simple dominion of 
nature is always princely, and the beauty of her man- 
ners is much more apt to hold the heart to its steadiest 
loyalty. 

The frivolous fastidiousness of fashionable life is ^ 
continually making blunders, and its wild conceptions 
often find their only relief in fancied delusions; and 



309 



when disappointment comes^ as come it will^ the blame 
is not unfrequently placed upon nature, as if the divin- 
ity had made our race only to be miserable. 

The simple life which was led by the early pioneers 
in their humble primitive cabins in the West^ had in 
it^ perhaps^ as much pure happiness as any other 
portion of the world has ever enjoyed. 

The eccentric tanner-poet^ of our State, Mr. John 
Finley^ has thus delineated cabin life^ and those who 
have seen it give him full credit for its truthfulness — 

^'The emigrant so soon located, 
In Hoosier life initiated ; 
Erects a cabin in the woods, 
Wherein he stows his household goods, 
At first round logs and clapboard roof, 
With puncheon floor, quite carpet proof, 
And paper windows, oiled and neat, 
His edifice is then complete. 
Ensconced in this, let those who can, 
Find out a truly happier man. 
The little youngsters rise around him, 
So numerous they quite astound him ; 
Each with an ax, or wheel in hand. 
And instinct to subdue the land." 

It was in such a cabin as this^ that Mrs. Havens 
spent many of the years of her life. Surrounded by her 
children^ which^ as we have stated^ were numerous, 
and busy with the cares of her maternal obligations, 
it may not reasonably be supposed that she was often 
lonesome. Though the tall forest trees towered around 
her, casting their dense shadows over her humble 
dwelling place, the dancing sun-light cheered her 
spirit with a love of life, while the songsters of nature 



310 

gave her free concerts, such as even connosieurs would 
have admired with more than the usual professional 
devotion. But while she was thus " occupying this 
cabin home in the woods, her itinerant husband was 
much of his time away on his circuits and districts, 
and consequently it became her duty to look after the | 
interests of their little farm, as well as the cares of j 
her numerous family. She of course trained her chil- j 
dren to work, for their labor was necessary to support ; 
them, as the quarterage salary of Mr. Havens 
w^ould not much more than pay his personal expenses. j 

In the discharge of all these responsibilities, she ! 
made no complaints, but patiently gave her strength | 
to the onerous task, as if nature and providence had | 
designed her the destiny. She always submissively I 
and reverently honored the ministry of her husband, \ 
and endeavored to so manage the affairs of home, that 
he might never miss an appointment. No one was 
more cognizant of these facts than Mr. Havens him- \ 
self, and he faithfully reciprocated her thoughtful ! 
tenderness with an affection and gratitude which ceased | 
only when he closed his own earthly life. j 

Actuated by the true spirit of religious obligations, j 
Mrs. Havens appeared never to wish to live for herself. I 
Her thoughts and her labors were for others, and while 
she studied the laws of domestic economy with her 
most serious thoughts, she made it the great object of ' 
her earthly toils, to do ^Svhat she could to honor the 
ministry of her companion and to bring up her chil- 
dren in the ways of truth and honesty. 

The services of such women in the Methodist itin- 



311 



erancy, particularly in the earlier years^ was certainly 
no ordinary sacrifice. What they did in the great 
work^ though only or chiefly seen in the more public 
labors of their husbands, certainly gaye them claims 
upon the gratitude of the church which none should 
ignore^ and which entitles their memories to a record 
of honor as enduring as that of their husbands them- 
selyes. • 

With the wives of many of the old pioneer preach- 
ers we had some acquaintance^ and we feel proud to 
bear our humble and sincere testimony to their many 
virtues. Full of the faith of honorable Christain 
women^ and ardently devoted to the cause of their 
master^ they gave themselves to the sacrifices and pri- 
vations of an itinerant life because their husbands 
believed they had been called to such a field of labor. 

Many of the perplexities of annual removals were 
however^ largely avoided by Mr. Havens, by settling 
his family in the very commencement of his Indiana 
itinerancy in their humble country cabin, for with 
him, as well as with others of that day, such economy 
was a necessity, for the alternative, if they had not 
done so would have been to have retired from the itin- 
erancy altogether. 

His family being a large one, he made the best pos- 
sible arrangements in his power for his continuance in 
the itinerant field, and after doing this to a great ex- 
tent, his good wife and children made their own sup- 
port, while he gave himself up wholly to the ministry. 

It was the assumption of this great responsibility, 
which gave to this good woman the profoundest 



312 



respect of all who knew her. They over-looked the 
defects of her worldly accomplishments^ and lack of 
general knowledge^ in their admiration of her 
good sense and simplicity of character and the many 
excellencies of her domestic servitude. 

Wholly unpretending as she always was^ the plain 
and beautiful simplicity of her life^ gave her the recog- 
nition of ^^a Mother in Israel. ^' Mother Ha vens^^ 
and ^^Aunt Anna/^ were the usual appellations given 
her among all her acquaintances^ and no one could be 
found so poor as to refuse to do her reverence. 

All knew that her life had been a plain one, and 
that the care of her children had given her arduous 
obligations, yet in her later years, when her children 
had grown to maturity, her life was crowned with 
as many respectful attentions as perhaps any other 
gaatron of the country. 

In one of her visits to the capital of the State, she 
was invited to the magnificent mansion of an old-time 
friend who had once lived in an humble cabin, as poor 
as she had ever been herself. Wealth and education 
and modern fashions had, hoAvever, wrought wonder- 
ful changes in the family, and these great changes of 
style were particularly noticed by the plain and vener- 
able matron, who would probably have let everything 
pass without a remark, if it had not been she saw there 
was some visible aristocratic exaltation from then until 
now, which, as was natural, she thought to check a 
little. 

After a brief reception in the drawing-room, the 
mother said to the daughter: 



313 



^^Bettie^ dear^ hadn^t you better give Aunt Anna a 
little music before she goes?^^ 

Of course consent was readily given^ as the young 
Miss, no doubt, felt somewhat proud of her musical 
accomplishments, and they all passed into the finely 
furnished parlor, where the spacious and costly damask- 
covered rocking chair was given to their venerable 
guest, who seated herself, while the grand piano was 
being opened. 

Aunt Anna looked round over the room as our old 
style women are apt to do, and observing the paintings 
and farniture, the carpets and piano, together with the 
rich curtains adorning the windows, she said to the 
lady of the house: ^^I see, sister, a great change 
between this fine parlor and the old log cabin where I 
first saw you.^^ 

Here the piano was opened and the daughter mad^ 
her fingers dance over the keys, by which she drew out 
such music as Aunt Anna had never heard before. 
Several of our modern w^altzes w^ere played, when the 
young Miss ceased. 

Well, I suppose,^^ said Mrs. Havens ^^that is what 
you call piano music, but for my part, I would just 
about as lief hear a cat squall as one of your pianos 

This left handed compliment, of course, was only 
intended as a playful sarcasm, by the old lady, but 
still, she doubtless spoke the truth, as it regarded her 
appreciation of the fashionable pretensions of the age. 
The put-on airs of our American aristocracy can have 
but limited attractions among the women whose 
musical culture was amid thehummings of the spinning 
27 



314 



wheel. The songs of the cradle^ and the old household 
melodies, comprised all the musical studies of Mother 
Havens' life, and a fish would certainly not be less at 
home out of water, than such persons usually are, 
amidst the- piano performances of many of our modern 
belles. The lessons of labor, of practical industry, 
were more highly prized by these old time people than 
any of our modern accomplishments, and in their 
view, the young lady who did not understand the gen- 
eral routine of domestic duties, of household obligations, 
was only suitable for a show window, or to make some 
man a fashionable slave for the mere honor of being 
married. 

Mrs. Havens had so educated herself to industry 
that she often knit her childrens' stockings when she 
walked into town, as she "frequently did in preference 
to riding. A story is authentically told of her, that 
in one of these trips she dropped her ball of yarn out 
of her pocket, and traveled on unwinding the yarn 
while the ball danced on the road behind her. One 
of her neighbors coming on horseback saw the ball 
nearly a quarter of a mile before he overtook her, and 
dismounting from his horse, he picked it up and began 
the operation of winding it. Looking away ahead, 
he saw the old lady moving slowly along, and with all 
his efforts, it was some time before he could wind up 
to her. He had a hearty laugh at her expense, partic- 
ularly when she said : 

^^I thought I felt something jerking; but I didn't 
dream that it was my ball of yarn." 

The last few years of Mrs. Havens' life were spent 



315 



in Rushville^ where they had a comfortable, h'ttle 
home and where she had seen her youngest daughter 
married. With them life had made many changes^ 
but yet amidst them all they had abundant reasons for 
gratefulness to the Almighty Giver of all good, for the 
tenderness of his providences and for his bounteous 
mercies. Her children were still all livings but 
three. Daniel, David and Conwell, had died after they 
had grown to manhood, one of whom, David, was a 
traveling minister in the Iowa C(inference at the time 
of his death. Two other sons, George and Landy, 
had been in the itinerant ministry for years. The rest 
were all settled around her, in married life, and the 
venerable parents were once more left alone. But the 
sun of their natural lives was evidently sinking low in 
the west, and the time was rapidly approaching when 
the silver cords. would be loosed and the golden bowl 
be broken, for it was written of them as of others: 

^^Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, 
and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.^' 

The death of a mother is always a sad calamity in 
any family, for her scepter of rule and government in 
most all cases, is that of love. It is this power which 
the good mother learns to be her strongest hold, and she 
cultivates it ordinarily in proportion to her endow- 
ments of sense and virtue. This power Mother 
Havens had exercised over her family through all the 
long years of her experience, and now that she had 
grown old, she still felt the same spirit moving her to 
send her daily prayers after them. The innocence of 
her life, and the gentleness of her spirit, gave her 



316 

much of the disposition of the child, so that when her 
death sickness came upon her^ she resigned her life 
without a sigh or a groan. 

Supported by her simple faith in Christ, she felt 
assured that all was well, and bidding her children to 
trust in the same Savior, she retired from this mortal 
life on the 23d of March, 1864, aged seventy-five 
years. Thus passed from the earth one of the humblest ■ 
and most sincere mothers of our Indiana itinerancy, 
and thoup^h she had seen more than her three score 
years and ten, her death was lamented as though she I 
had died in her teens. To Father Havens especially, \ 
her demise was the darkest cloud of his years. He i 
seemed not to know how to live without her. She 
had been so long the true wife of his heart and had so 
often kindled the fires of his gratitude by the numer- | 
ous kindnesses of her deeds, that when she was gone \ 
and hid away in the grave, the lonely and venerable I 
pioneer felt, that his very life star had set, that no | 
other earthly charm remained to him, and the sacred i 
place where they buried her out of his sight became j 
from thenceforth, until within a few days of his own ) 
death, the only seeming altar of his acceptable sac- | 
rifice. 



317 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

HIS OWX DEMISE. 

The death of a good man is never an ordinary event. 
The loss we are aAvare is not often acknowledged^ because 
society but seldom appreciates such a character. But 
felt or not^ recognized or ignored^ the moral nerve of 
humanity is weakened by such an affliction^ and the 
vaccum created in the ranks of reform and of 
personal heroism which the death of such a one has 
made^ will never again be filled by another. For each 
human being, either good or bad^ fills his own niche 
in the temple of the universe^ and when by death a 
vacancy is created in this outer court of mortal life 
the vaccum is never filled again^ others may survive 
who may represent the departed^ but the vital character 
of the dead has been taken with him^ and his individ- 
ual identity and personal power thenceforth belong to 
the scenes and responsibilities of his eternal mission. 

It is in this respect only that death is our enemy. 
His inflictions bereave us^ leave us in orphanage and 
carry away from our sides and presence life's strongest 
props^ and earth's brightest stars. On those moral 
supports we can never lean again^ and the cheerful 
glitterings of those stars are seen by us no more. 

Why it is thus in our worldly relationships the 
philosophy of Christianity alone explains. Mortal 
life has its missions as well as the immortal^ and the 
one fits us for the other as thouo^ht kindles thouocht, 



318 

as association creates affection^ as home makes life^ and ij 

as aspiration feeds upon the hopes of an immortal \\ 

destiny, [j 

The fact is ^yell recognized^ as well as universal^ |j 

that earthly experiences and aspirations all fail to satisfy ij 

the longings of mind. Even honor^ fame and wealthy i| 

the three great divinities of the present life fall short | 

of any permanent human gratification^ and the hearts | 

of the million turn away from them with disgust and | 

satiety. | 

Beautiful as this world may be^ it was never intended \ 
as our lasting abiding place. It is only the garden or 
our origin and of our mortal trial. 1 he earth receives 

us as temporary citizens^ on the agreement that our j 

mortal lives shall be regulated by its laws. Therefore^ I 

what we are physically is always fixed by this submis- ' 

sion^ while what we are intellectually and morally is j 

in proportion to the elforts of our cultivation and of j 

our obedience to moral principks. . | 

All men^ it seems^ believe in some sort of an eternal 

future^ but what it is and what will be its personal and j 

relative responsibilities^ they appear not to compre- I 

hend. They do not think as they ought to^ that such j 

specific revelations as they would wish for are not now | 

necessary. We now see through a glass darkly^ but i 
then face to face. We now know in part^ but then 
shall we know even as we are known. This is 
Heaven^s order^ and the economy is certainly a wise 
one, for if any other philosophy was taught us, the 
very cowardice of men would force them to an exit 

from the earth regardless of their whole mortal mission, \ 



319 



in view merely of freeing themselves from worldly 
trial and responsibility. 

Life has its requisitions as well as death^ and if law 
is observed, the latter must wait on the former until 
lifers mission is duly finished and the clay house of its 
earthly dwelling falls to pieces with its own years. 
This is Christianity's simplest lesson, and men should 
study it because it is practical as well as philo- 
sophicaL 

AYhat we are here is life\s great concern, as it is also 
the living burden of our religious philosophy. The 
present is a reality, a personal responsibility and 
demands our sincerest devotions, and whatever lot 
falls to our destiny, the path of faithful duty is always 
the road to an honorable destiny. 

Then, when a good man dies we can confidently 
believe that our loss is his infinite gain.'^ Xature 
may be robbed of a citizen, and we who survive 
may be bereaved, but liTe itself is nothing the loser. 
The thought of mind, once freed from the clay tene- 
ment, goes on to a higher destination of being, where 

; beneficent employments absorb its powers, and the 
work of angelic ministration becomes its eternal life, 
as a part and portion of the immortal agencies in the 

^divine beneficence. 

i Hence, it may be said, in agreement with the very 
genius of Christian truth, that death never triumphs 
over life. It possesses no such conquering powers. 
Its highest attributes only give to it the endowment of 
an earthly gate-way to the spirit land, where truth 
holds universal empire, and love and beneficence meas- 



320 



ure the boundaries and capacity of every living soul. 
Earthly duties and earthly relationships may hold us 
here with hooks of steely but when the good man, at 
any age, feels that his work is done, eternity has no 
terrors which can throw a storm-cloud over the hopes 
of his soul, and death itself comes to him only as 
gentle slumbers come to a child. 

For many long years, snch thoughts as these 
influenced and governed the mind and heart of our 
departed hero, Father Havens. And when the \ 
years of his life had numbered over three score and f 
ten, he could but look around him in expectation of 
the speedy coming of death to give him his release 
from the feebleness of age, and to restore him to the 
relationships of the loved and the lost,^^ who had 
gone before him to the better land. 

To him the world had lost most of its charms. The 
wife of his youth and the companion of his years, had i 
but a few months before passed away, and the lone- 
liness of life had seemingly become to him as the I 
" valley of the shadow of death. 

All of his old pioneer companions in the ministry of 
Indiana, had gone the way of their fathers, and he felt 
that he was left alone. He saw in the dim vision of 
his age, that his sun of life w^as casting its long shad- 
ows very near his feet, and he felt that the time of his 
departure from the earth was near at hand. 

Solemn as the conviction was, the thought of dying ; 
now became intermingled with his dearest hopes, for 
he well knew that the shores of reunion could only be 
reached through the gates of death and therefore he 



\ 



321 

was not afraid to die. The grave of his wife had 
become earth^s dearest spot to his spirit^ and he made 
his pilgrimages to the cemetry\s sacred enclosure with 
a devotion of love to her memory such as we have 
never known in any other instance. His affection for 
his wife seemed to have been doubled by her death. 
The bright visage of her simple and unostentatious 
virtues lived in his hearty as if its impress had been 
fastened there by the infinite fingers. The wife of his 
bosom and the mother of his children, she had been 
the divinity of his domestic joys^ and now that she 
was gone from him^ he could but mourn as one who 
had been left behind amidst the desolations of a wilder- 
ness. On her grave he v/ould go and bow his knees in 
prayer to the Father of all life, and there he claimed 
to receive richer assurances of their speedy reunion 
among the immortal ones^ than he could or did any- 
where else. 

In family bereavements Father Havens may be said 
to have been more than usually favored. The father 
of so many children, there was never a death among 
them until he had reached his sixty-fourth year. 
With him the lessons of life had been far greater than 
those of death. Through many gathering years the 
sunlight along his earthly pathway had been without 
a mortal cloud. The gentle providence was fully 
recognized by him, and he often said, that in this 
respect he had been the most highly favored of men. 
When at a late period in his life, this cloud did gather 
over him, he could but feel that it was all right, for 
he well knew that it was appointed unto man once 
28 



322 



to die/^ and he did not dare to murmur when the day 
of darkness eventually came upon his own hearth. 

He had often witnessed the ravages of death in fam- 
ilies around him^ and with the best words of his heart 
he had endeavored to speak to the sorrowing the con- 
solations of the Christian faith. Twice/ just a few 
wrecks before his death, was he called to the Capital of 
the State to officiate at the burial services of two of his 
old and particular friends. 

One of these was Morris Morris, one of the oldest 
citizens of the city. For more than forty years the 
hospitable dwelling of Mr. Morris had been one of 
Father Havens^ most intimate homes, and when the 
venerable old pioneer was about to die, he expressed 
the wish that Father Havens should attend and preach 
a funeral discourse at his burial. 

A compliance w^ith this request gave him his last 
opportunity of officiating in Indianapolis. Of course, 
the ceremonies attending this funeral led the vener- 
able minister to look back upon the past as well as 
forward upon the future. The changes around him 
were great, for the wilderness had become the thronged 
city, and but few who had worshiped with him in 
their first rude meeting house were left to witness 
the solemn valedictory services of this funeral occa- 
sion. 

Returning to his Rushville home, after seeing his old 
friend, Pa Morris,^' laid away in his grave. Divine 
Providence, as if about to make him familiar with death, 
in view of his own speedy demise, called him suddenly 
to the bedside of his daughter, Emily Hitt, then residing 



323 



in Kokomo. As yet^ tlie venerable Apostle had never 
lost a daughter^ and though old and stricken in years^ 
he was prompt to obey the call^ and taking the cars, 
in a few hours he was by her bedside, with all the 
kindly sympathies of a devoted and loving father. 

The case^ he saw^ was an intricate one^ and admitted 
but little hope of recovery^ and he bid her put her 
trust in God, no matter what might be the issue. 

Day and night he watched over her, doing and 
directing what he could for her relief and comfort, and 
when he saw that she must die, he bowed in prayer by 
her bedside and surrendered her back to her Maker 
with all that solemn and deep feeling, so characteristic 
of his strong and atfectiooate nature. 

In a few moments his beloved daughter was dead. 
A wife and a mother, she had been called away early 
in life, but with the full hope of a glorious immortality 
beyond. , 

When her mortal remains were decently put away in 
the grave, feeling as he had never felt before that his own 
end was not far oif, he turned his face once more home- 
ward, that he might die in his own bed and among his 
own kindred. His Conference being in session at 
Shelby ville, he stopped, though feeling greatly fatigued 
from his recent exposures, that he might once more 
look in upon his brethren and bid them God speed in 
their great work of evangelization. A single appear- 
ance in the Conference room was all he could make for 
he was too feeble to render any service, and without a 
word of ceremony, he left the Conference, and taking 



324 



the cars for Rushville, he was once more under his 
own roof. 

Like the soldier from the battle field — though his 
friends did not know it — he had come home to die. 
Nature^ with him^ had made her chief life struggles, 
and now that her once proud vessel was about to sink, 
he was confident his soul would ride the storm. 

It was while he was in this frail condition of phys- 
ical debility that he learned from a friend and neigh- 
bor, who had called upon him, that it was the day of 
the October election. His friend asked him if he 
would like to vote ? 

If I thought I could stand it to get there, I would 
be glad to do so,^^ said he, and he then added, I 
have always loved my country, and I have always 
tried to vote for the right, and as this is perhaps my 
last opportunity, if I can be taken in a carriage, I 
think I can stand it.'^ In a couple of hours, a carriage 
was brought to his door, and with some assistance, 
he was enabled to get into it, when he was driven to 
the polls. A ticket was handed him, and he took out 
his glasses and placed them on his face, in order to 
examine it. He got out of the carriage with the 
assistance of friends who had gathered around him 
and handing his ballot to the judges, he said, This, 
gentlemen, I presume, is my last vote.^^ Then being 
assisted into the carriage again, the crowd seemingly 
looking upon him as if they thought it was the last 
time and as most of them had known him for many 
years they could but reverence him, and a number 
came forward and shook hands with him. 



325 



Excited by the crovrd and the scene before him, and 
feeling that it was his last opportunity, he said, ^^Gen- 
tlemen, some of you may think me imprudent in 
coming out in my present feeble state of healtli to vote 
to-day. It may be that I have been, but I felt it to 
be my duty to come and voce. For years I have had 
a deep concern for my country, and I have even been 
afraid that it would not stand. The dreadful war now 
raging, for what I knov\', may give it to the flames of 
destruction, but I hope it will not. You, gentlemen, 
will live to see the end of this fearful struggle, but I 
will not : my days, I feel, are about numbered, and I 
wish to say to you all, be true to your country, consti- 
tution and laws, and never sacrifice to party ambition 
the welfare of the government." 

The old fire of the venerable patriot was still burn- 
ing in his bosom, and in thus performing his last 
public duty as a citizen, he showed the living earn- 
estness of his spirit, and the bold and determined 
patriotism of his life. Returning to his room and 
bed, he laid himself upon his couch trusting that in 
the hands of a kind and merciful Providence that all 
would be well. 

To his children and friends who visited him from 
day to day, he bore strong testimony to his faith in 
God, and he assured them that in Christ his Saviour 
his salvation would be complete. 

To his son. Rev. George Havens, he said: ^'I have 
no fears of death. Christ the Lord is my salvation 
both living and dying, and I feel that I shall soon be 
at rest.'^ 



326 



Implicit confidence in his heavenly Father appeared 
to be his most distinguishing dying trait, and though 
he talked but little, what he said satisfied his children 
and neighbors that his passage to the shades of death 
was calm and placid. He felt that his life-work was 
finished and the light of his lamp went out gently and 
sweetly — 

" Like the stars, 
Which sink not behind the darkened West, 
But melt away into the light of Heaven." 

On the morning of the 4th of November, 1864, the 
sad news was told through the streets of the town that 
Father Havens was dead. To every heart the tidings 
were mournful, for all felt that they had lost a good 
man from among them, that a venerable and worthy 
patriarch was dead. For nearly seventy-four years, 
he had been a pilgrim of earth, and at this good old 
age he was gathered to his fathers. Though advanced 
in life and unable longer to go out as a gospel messen- 
ger among men, the thousands of his friends felt loth 
to believe him gone even after they knew he had been 
placed in his grave. 



327 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

FUXERAL OBSEQUIRS. 

'When the sad tidings was told that Father Havens 
was dead^ the hearts of thousands lamented his depart- 
ure. For forty years he had claimed a citizenship 
in the county of Eush^ and during all that period the 
definite trumpet tones of his warnings had been famil- 
iar among the people. He had stood in the gate 
guarding the citadel of reform against jDOjDular evils, 
and always fearless of the public censure. Every one 
knew him. His character was understood^ and but 
few could justly speak evil of him. The flao; that he 
bore had been but seldom furled^ and in the moral 
conflicts of the country_, he had always been seen in the 
front of the battle. 

Thus known^ good men loved him^ and even bad 
men reverenced him^ because they knew he would 
stand up for the right though the very heavens fell. 
Such a man and minister could not well die vrithout 
drawing around his bier the sincere regrets and mourn- 
ful sympathies of many thousands. 

The building up of the moral fortunes of the people 
had been the sole objective labors of his life, and when 
it was told that Father Havens (as all called him) 
was dead, multitudes felt that the doss was theirs much 
more than it was his. He had stood before them as an 
apostle of truth and right through so many years, with 
all the fearless independence and moral firmness of a 



328 



man of God^ and a minister of righteousness, that 
when they knew he was no more, they could but ask^ 
" Who will ever fill his place 

What he was, dead and in his coffin, did not affect 
them so much as what they all felt they had lost in 
the heroism of his life and in the manliness of his min- 
istry. Surrounded by numerous moral dangers, as 
they knew they all were, they could but fear for 
their own future welfare, as there was no one rec- 
ognized by them to take his place. Missed by the 
Church, as well as by the world, the vacuum created 
by his death, was felt to be much more than an ordi- 
nary one, and many remarked very truly ^^His exact 
likeness, will never be seen among us again. 

In his own house, in the town of Rushville, he had 
died, and there he lay in state, plainly and humbly, as 
a true and faithful Methodist preacher. He was only 
this and nothing more. He had never indeed made 
pretensions to anything else. This was enough, and 
as he had often expressed himself, It was even much 
more than he could well honor as he wished. 

By the side of his wife, he had appeared for months, 
anxious to rest, and there they now prepared his 
grave, that they might lay him away in that conse- 
crated " God's acre,'' where his dust might sleep until 
the Savior of man comes to make ap his jewels. 

The full funeral ceremonies which his friends all 
felt were so justly due to his memory and virtues, 
were postponed to accommodate the wide circle of his 
kindred and brethren, and after proper religious 
services, conducted by Rev. John W. Mellender, who 



329 



was the pastor of the Rushville Station^ his body was 
deposited in its last resting place. 

The funeral cortege was a large one, and the dust of 
the grave which rattled upon his cofiin was watched 
with deep emotion by the gathered circle, for the 
solemn conviction was upon them all, that a hero had 
perished, that a Prince in Israel had fallen! 

Nature itself demands a tribute of respect when a 
good man is put away in his grave, but on the occa- 
sion of Father Havens' burial the marked solemnity 
of the scene gave evidence of the deepest reverence. 
Well stricken in years, as he was, and though they all 
knew that he had lived out the measure of a long and 
honorable life^ they were still not prepared for his 
exit. 

To die thus amid the regrets of thousands is a 
destiny allotted only to the few. Love may shed its 
tears of warm atfection over the graves of youth and 
infancy but when the aged die the reverence of univer- 
sal regret becomes the higest attestation both of virtue 
and character. No higher eulogy can be given to 
departed greatness, and no richer chaplet can wreath 
the monument of worth and goodness. An embalment 
in the hearts of the people when one is dead is the 
highest inheritance of human life. Nothing in honor 
or fame can equal it, and the contrast between such an 
immortality and that of the penury-bound millionare, 
or the mere worldly schemer, however respectable he 
may be, is as wide as the distance of the poles. 
Millions of such earth travelers perish and go down to 
the dust without anything more than a mere passing 



330 

thought and their existences here might be set down as 
palpable moral abortions. The lives of all such selfish, i 
worldly drivelers contradict in every .particular the | 
philosophy of humanity, and even put to shame the j 
modesty of the commonest charity. | 

Of the good, the honest hearted always love to speak 
in praise, and in all such cases the language of eulogy 
becomes their vernacular, and the justness of their 
verdicts is seen in the reformatory power of their 
subjects long after they are dead. 

With such a man as Father Havens had been, his 
kindred and friends did not think it would be doing | 
proper justice to his memory to bury him away in the j 
grave w^ith the mere ordinary ceremonies of a funeral 3 
occasion. They claimed what was true, that both as ij 
a man and a minister, he was above the common order \ 
and, therefore, it was determined to appoint a day when 
his friends might gather and give to the memory of 
his virtues and life, that becoming tribute of respect 
and reverence which so many declared was due to such 
a grand old Methodist hero. 

The first Sunday in June, 1865, was appointed for 
the gathering of his friends and kindred to pay this 
tribute, and when the day arrived they came from far 
and near by the thousands — so that the vast assem- 
bly was supposed to numT^er between three and four 
thousand. 

The churches of the town were all closed and their 
congregations united in the solemn ceremonies with as 
much sincere regard for the memory of the venerable 
dead as if he had been their own father or brother. 



331 



By an agreement made several years before Father 
Havens^ death^ the honor of preaching his funeral was 
conceded to one of his sons in the ministry, Rev, 
John W. T. McMullen. AVith this young Methodist 
preacher Father Havens had long been intimate. The 
one was old and the other young, but the simplicity of 
honest hearts made them congenial^ and the warmth 
of their friendship without abatement continued until 
it was severed by the hand of death. 

By many, this selection was thought to be a strange 
one, particularly as Mr. McMullen was a young man, 
while in different parts of the State there were a num- 
ber of able and venerable ministers who had long been 
identified with Father Havens in episcopal counsels 
and through many social years. 

'But those who had any such thoughts did not call to 
mind the peculiar independence of character which 
Father Havens always possessed. He never could be 
flattered, and he cared as little for compliments as any 
minister we have known. Living or dead, he did not 
wish for any fulsome praise. We once heard him say 
^^that he would as lief have an exhorter to preach 
his funeral, if he was dead, as a bishop. His inti- 
mate friends all knew that while he had a high appre- 
ciation of the abilities and characters of others, he 
was not the man ever to yield to any eulogies of 
himself. 

If the selection of the preacher was an error, it was 
in no sense intended to be malignant or even partial, 
but was simply agreed to in conformity with the long 
well known attachment between the father and the son. 



332 



We are aware of the fact that even in the churches 
it is not often the case that the people are disposed to 
worship setting suns. Youthful fires are supposed to 
send forth the brighter blaze, while dying embers are 
only supposed to give the feeble emblems of energies 
well spent. 

In this peculiar idiosyncrasy of the age^ but few 
men were better posted than Father Havens himself, 
and even to his latest days he detested it as a mark 
of the beast which would dishonor any church or 
people. Reverence for the integrity and wisdom of 
age was certainly one of his virtues. But while this 
fact is affirmed, the other assertion may be made^ that 
he was never disposed to turn his back upon youthful 
simplicity, or to think less of sincerity because it was 
found in the bosom of youth. He was always the 
friend of the young man, and especially of the young 
minister, and if he sometimes spoke to him in the 
language of rebuke, he was impelled to it by a sincere 
and ardent wish that the reproof might work a reform, 
that the young man might be cured of his malady. 

The medicine which he gave to others he was always 
willing to take himself, and therefore, even in view of 
his own death, he had no desire to have one word said 
of him when he was gone, unless it was fully sustained 
by the facts of history. He had indeed so charged 
his young companion when the proposition was made 
that he should preach his funeral. Truthful frankness 
was his beau ideal of an honest funeral sermon, and he 
had no wish that his own case should be an exception. 

The large congregation which met to participate in 



333 



the final obsequies of Father Havens could not be 
accommodated in any church of the town^ and prepara- 
tions for their accommodation were made in the beau- 
tiful groA'e of the court house campus where a stand 
had been erected for the ministers^ and where all could 
comfortably hear the officiating speaker. 

Having been personally invited to be present on this 
mournful occasion, we arrived on Sunday morning just 
in time to witness the assembling of the people and 
the commencement of the religious services. AVe saw 
there was no pompous programme or formal paegantry. 
The people came as was their custom to worship, and 
taking their seats in general order^ the services were 
begun with singing by the whole congregation^ when 
devout prayer was otf'ered by Rev. D. M. Stewart, of 
the Presbyterian Church, who for nearly twenty years 
had been the neighbor of Father Havens as well as an 
associate brother minister, 

Mr. Stewart had known the departed dead through 
a majority of his ministerial years, and his prayer^ 
while it was humble and contrite before God, savored 
of his high appreciation of the venerated Father^ and 
gave strong assurances of his abiding faith that the 
spirit of the good man whose death they all mourned, 
was safely housed where the wicked cease from 
troubling and the weary are at rest.'' 

When several appropriate passages of scripture had 
been read, and another hymn was sung by the congre- 
gation. Brother McMullen arose and read his text : 
^'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the 



334 



first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and 
there was no more sea/^ etc., etc. Rev. xxi, 1. 

To give any definite outline of this lengthy and 
elaborate sermon transcends our present privilege, 
and as we have never seen the manuscript since the 
day it was read to that large and attentive congrega- 
tion of sympathizing friends, it would be impossible 
for us to do it justice in any report we might here 
make of it. 

The subject of the new creation was the theme 
of the speaker, which he handled with much more 
than the ordinary ability. The efibrt might have been 
styled a grand one, for its exhibition was " a wilder- 
ness of words and ideas,^^ and the visions of its 
general theory, whether probable or tangible, were as 
beautiful as the gardens of Paradise. The day was as 
lovely as summer, and the aroma of the flowers of 
June threw around us the inspirations of the present 
life, and we found it diflBcult to follow the winged 
messengers of the sermonic thought from this creation 
to any other. However beautiful the celestial theory, 
or grand and graphic the rhetoric of the speaker^s 
happy expressions, our thoughts were of and with the 
lamented dead. The wings of fancied theories were 
not ours on the occasion, and ever and anon we had to 
let the eloquent orator fly where he might or could, 
independent of our accompaniment. 

It is strange, and yet it is true, the solemnities of 
death admit only of the eloquence and music of love. 
All other aggrandisements lose their power in its pres- 
ence. 



335 



In thought and memory that holy day had been 
consecrated by that whole assembly to the sacred rem- 
iniscences of Father Havens^ life and history. The 
dust of his grave still held them to the earthy and they 
could only mount the chariot of fire^ where his spirit 
was presumed to be one of the company. All 
admitted that the effort of Mr. McMulIen was both 
able and eloquent. Xo one could censure him for 
not being elaborately prepared for the occasion. But 
the misfortune was^ he had not anticipated the still 
powerful dominion of the lamented dead. Just then a 
simple narrative of the thoughts and feelings^ the 
hopes and fears^ with brief sketches of the character 
and life of Father Havens^ to that audience^ would 
have been appreciated far beyond the grandest specu- 
lative theories of the future life theologians have ever 
invented." 

"We had traveled a long distance to pay a reverential 
tribute to the memory of the man and minister whom 
we had looked upon as being the ablest of our Indiana 
pioneer Methodist preachers^ and our own thoughts 
were in unison with those of the congregation. The 
specific purpose of the day and the object of its 
funeral consecration was the life and character of Father 
Havens as the original premises. Hence^ our line of 
j thought^ like those of the people^ was on the track 
of the venerable hero who had so recently left us, and 
on this account^ we doubtless failed to appreciate, as 
we should have done, the very learned and eloquent 
sermon of the orator preacher. 

In a few pages which Brother McMullen devoted to 



336 



the virtues and character of his beloved Father in the 
Ministry, he informed us that he had known him, as 
a Methodist preacher, from his earliest childhood 
days. 

He had gone with his own father, when he him- 
self was but a little boy, to hear Father Havens 
preach, and in the innocency of his youth, he had 
listened to him with as much reverence as if he had 
been a minister plenipotentiary direct from Heaven. 

" I have never known,^^ said he, a more simple or 
purer minded man. A very child in the tenderness of 
his affections, his thoughts were as just as they were 
pure. Though he might have erred through the 
excitement of impulse, he never did by any wanton 
violation of principle. 

With him truth was inviolate and the sacredness 
of integrity was to be maintained even at the risk of 
life itself. To live an honest life as well as a useful 
one, was his great ambition ; and although he was 
sometimes censured for being too frank and too severe, 
he did not aim to be impertinent, but only to speak 
the words of truth and soberness. Full of the kind- 
liest sympathy, his hand was ever ready to help the 
unfortunate, and where guilt was not attached, his 
great soul would lead him to dare even danger and 
death to help a suffering fellow mortal. 

" But the man and the Christian hero is dead. Our 
venerable father has gone from us to return no more 
in the flesh. The silent grave may hold his inanimate 
dust, but, thank God, his spirit is in no such narrow 
prison house. The enchantments of the celestial city 



337 



with its freedom^ its happy associations and angelic 
missions are now his through the blood of the new 
and everlasting covenant. 

" Therefore let us all join in the sublime doxology: 
^ Xow unto the Kins; eternal, invisible, the only v>dse 
Godj our father, be glory, through Jesus Christ, forever 
and ever, Amen/ 



29 



338 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

HIS MONUMENT. 

The cemetery of Rushville, in which the mortal 
remains of our Methodist hero^ Father Havens^ was 
buried, is located on a beautiful bluff of Flat Rock^ 
about half a mile east of the town. 

The location presents to the passer by, perhaps, as 
quiet and picturesque a place in which to bury the 
dead as may be found in the State. 

The lot for his grave and that of his wife, had been 
selected years before by Father Havens himself. 
Conscious as he was that the solemn change of death 
was not far off, and would inevitably come, he wisely 
and with good grace and faith chose this spot as their 
last resting place, where his children and friends might 
come and call them up in their memories when the 
outside world had forgotten them. 

Humble and obscure as this sacred inclosure may 
be and far away as it is from the bustle and stir of 
busy life, the musical chorals of nature^s songsters, 
with the melancholy dirges of the surrounding forest 
winds, give the locality the solemn appropriateness of 
a cemetery for the dead. 

Here in this quiet burial place is the narrow house 
of the old itinerant pioneer where he now sleeps well. 
The spot is pointed out with more than the usual 
respect and reverence, for the pride of public sentiment 
which was ever partial to him while living has followed 
him down to his grave. 



339 



The years seem not to have obscured the remem- 
brance of his virtues or to have swept away any of the 
broad influences of his character. Though most of his 
associates have gone with him to the grave, the present 
generation appears to remember him as if he was still 
cotemporary with themselves. 

To this sacred spot, this rural burying place of 
the dead, is now given a higher character than ever 
before. Good men were buried in it in other years, 
but Father Havens now sleeps there and all feel that 
this fact gives it a still greater distinction ; for the 
place where worth and virtue are buried always 
becomes holy ground, and marks the particular spot of 
earth with a sacred richness which nothing else that is 
mortal can ever equal, for — 

That dust which forms the winding sheet 
Of good men's bones gives life to death; 
It throws a mantle oe'r their frames, 
And keeps them young as in their birth/' 

Where the brain of thought and the heart of love 
decay is consecrated ground. Hence the spot w^here 
our fathers sleep in the quiet repose of death becomes 
hallowed in memory as the buried loves of the soul. 
Their spirits have gone from us, but the dust they 
have left behind them and which is so sacredly 
treasured, is henceforth the attracting neucleus of a 
thousand pilgrimages. 

In the cave of the field of Macpelah before Mamre, 
Abraham buried Sarah his w^ife. And the field and 
the cave that is therein w^ere made sure unto Abraham 



340 



for a possession of a burying place by the sons of 
Heth/^ 

Thus we may see^ that even antiquity had its ceme- 
tery veneration^ as well as our modern ages. Indeed 
it may be asserted that the regards paid to the dead 
are the distinguishing marks of our civilization, as 
well as a delicate evidence of our intelligent Christian 
refinements. It is not enough to merely hide them 
away in the dust, but as Gray in his " Church Yard 
Elegy^^ has so beautifully told it : 

Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect, 
Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, 
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 
Their names, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse, 
The place of fame and elegy supply; 
And many a holy text around she strews, 
To teach the rustic moralist to die." 

The simple affection for the man and the sincere 
reverence for the minister which was so universally 
manifested in the case of Father Havens^ led many to 
say when he was dead that his grave should be marked 
by a monument such as would justly and properly 
represent him^ and in some respects be commensurate 
with his life and character. 

They thought that, as his services and itinerant fame 
had extended over the whole State, the four Indiana 
Conferences would, if the matter was properly pre- 
sented to them, move in the line of a monument, such 
as might fully meet the exigency. 

But more mature reflection convinced them that 
this plan was impracticable, for it would have been both 



341 



partial and invidious^, as many other good minis- 
ters had died Avhose graves were only marked by 
2)lain monumental tablets, \vhile some were without 
even a grave stone of any kind. Therefore^ all public 
effort was abandoned^ and the beautiful spire which 
marks his grave is alone the gift of his own children. 

Soon after his death^ the Administrators of his 
estate^ Rev. George Havens and John Dixon^ Esq.^ 
contracted for the erection of a marble monument at 
a cost of 82,500^ which it was supposed would fully 
meet the wishes of his friends^ and serve as an appro- 
priate memorial of the distinguished itinerant, 

Tiie stately and beautiful mausoleum is certainly 
creditable to the family and to the hero whose memory 
it perpetuates. It is composed of the finest grained 
Italian marble and exhibits fine mechanical skill and 
Avorkmanship. and ornamented as it is with a striking 
bust in bas relief of ^* the brave old rnan/^ the 
presentation is as complete as it is beautiful and ap- 
propriate. Some^ indeed^ may think the display an 
extravagance^ but nothing less would have done justice 
to the man or the minister, or have given to the 
present or coming generations any fair conceptions of 
his Avorth. and virtues, 

AVilliam VTivt tells us that ^^no memorial^ no slab 
even raised by the liancl of neitioneil c/reditude, points to 
the grave of Patrick Henry or tells where sleeps the 
ashes of the patriot and sage/^ and he has well and 
beautifully added: ^'Had his lot been cast in the 
Republics of Greece or Rome, his name would have 
been enrolled by some immortal pen among the 



342 



expellers of tyrants and the champions of liberty ; the 
proudest monuments of national gratitude would have 
risen to his honor and handed down his memory to 
future generations/^ Such reflections are as eloquent 
of reply as they are justly regardful of the worth of 
departed greatness and we place them here to vindicate 
our own position. 

On the beautiful Sabbath afternoon of the funeral 
ceremonies in memory of Father Havens, several hun- 
dred of the kindred and friends assembled around his 
grave to look upon the structure of his monument and 
to listen to some short addresses commemorative of his 
life and character. The thought was but a simple one, 
for it was not expected that the speakers would indulge 
in any fulsome eulogies or empty panegyrics of the 
dead, but would only call up some of the old fires of 
affection which so many desired should live in their 
heart of hearts while life itself should last. It wsa^ 
in shorty a meeting to pay a last sad tribute to one — - 

Whose life was braye, but gentle ; and the elements 
So mixed in Lim, that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world — This is a man. 

The verdant grass and surrounding evergreens, the 
numerous monuments of the dead, and the tall forest 
trees, casting their long shadows over us, with the 
mild complacency of the sun far down in the west, 
gave to the scene a thoughtful and sombre character 
which doubtless impressed every one present. 

An appropriate him was sung and prayer was 
offered, when the first speaker addressed us : 

My friends,^^ said he, the shadows which play 



343 



around us here this lovely summer evenings are enough 
to awaken ATithin us living thoughts of the spirit land. 
Standing as I do^ in the presence of the grave and 
monument of the greatest Methodist hero the State of 
Indiana has ever had^ I can not but acknowledge the 
lingering presence of his personal power. I feel as if 
Father Havens was still here ; that he ' is not dead 
but yet speaketh.^ 

"What he was we have all known, and what he is 
here in his grave we all see. But where he is in his 
spirit^s activity and life^ we know not, for this is 
beyond our privilege to discern. 

" His history in this life is all we have of him. We 

can look back upon that^ here and now^ as the only 

inheritance w^e have of the man. Death has stripped 

him of mortal life and we have laid his body in this 

charnel house before us^ to await the second act in 

lifers immortal programme. With him the first act is 

past^ and his mortal trial is over. But we may add^ 

^ Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, 
For now he lives in fame though not in life.' 

" His work on earth is done^ and it w^as well done. 
But few have ever done it better. His indomitable 
will and unwearied faithfulness^ enabled him to fullfil 
his mission wdth honor. And may we not now still 
ask : 

* Can he be dead, 
Whose spirit influence jet is on his kind? 
May we not hear him still from speaking dust. 
Like angel whispers from the spirit land ? ' 

It is indeed^ my friends^ a most difficult task to 
recognize that Father Havens is dead. I still seem to 



344 



see him and hear him speak. His presence appears to 
be with me in my soul's recognitions, almost as 
fully visible as when he was yet living. His words of 
thought and his lessons of wisdom are still heard in 
their echoes, and I can not forget them, for they 
always weighed with me as silver, as I well knew they 
came from the mint of an honest heart. Frank and 
brave, sincere and benignant, no one ever dared to 
charge him with treachery, or accuse him of forsaking 
a friend in order to take the better care of himself 

^^I have traveled a hundred miles to attend the \ 
solemnities of his funeral, and standing as I do, with 
you, amidst the august pageantry of this burial place 
of the dead, I feel that it is good to be here, because 
it is my privilege and honor to be among the throng 
who are paying a simple but just tribute to one who 
was morally illustrious in life, and in death is worthy 
of our most regretful memories. 

Judge J.. D. Logan, of the Rushville bar, was next 
called out, and spoke as follows: 

You must excuse me ladies and gentlemen from 
attempting anything more on this solemn occasion than 
a few casual remarks. 

I knew Father Havens, and I may say I knew him 
well for many years. He was a good citizen and a 
true man; and I am justified in saying he was worthy 
of being ranked among the ablest ministers of the 
State. Gentle and kind, affable and polite, his man- 
ners were always those of a gentleman, and yet no 
man I have ever known excelled him in his devotions 
to what he deemed to be the right. He was ever as 



345 



firm in his principles as he was independent in his 
spirit. Xature had made him a nobleman, as I doubt 
not but grace had made him a Christian. 

*^It has often been my privilege to sit under his 
preaching, and I have had many long conversations 
with him, for he was my friend, and as such I was 
always proud of him, I may say of him, that he was 
a man who never trimmed his sails to shun a storm of 
responsibility, or catered in the least degree to any of 
the corruptions of society. He always appeared to 
know that he was set for the defense of the gospel, 
and- he maintained this position to the end of his life. 
Though his profession was very different from mine, I 
presume there will be nothing improper in my saying 
-that he was the most heroic preacher Indiana has ever 
had. He preached to men^s hearts and consciences, 
and no minister was truer than he was in telling his 
congregations of their sins. Of him I may say, as 
was once said of another, 

'This Cardinal 
Thougli from an linmble stock, undoubtedly 
Was fashioned to much honor. From his cradle 
He was a scholar, and a ripe, and good one : 
Exceeding wise, fair spoken and persuading; 
Lofty and firm — though some there doubtless 

Were, who loved him not.' 

^^But I may here remark that if an}' hated Father 
Havens they surely showed but little love for them- 
selves. For honest in his purposes and always well 
meaning, his actions were regulated by the laws ot 
truth and right, and if he erred the mantle of charity 
might well be thrown over his errors, for they were 
30 



346 



the results of human frailty and not those of any 
moral intention. 

I turn^ I confess, with great personal gratification 
to the magnificent monument before me, which his 
children have placed over his grave, and as I look upon 
it and think of the venerable minister, the brave 
hero, the genuine Christian and kind father, I can 
not but say the man was well worthy of such a tes- 
timonial, for he was one of the first in the Church of 
which he was a minister, and he was also an honor to 
our -own community in which he lived and died. His 
<3hildren, and children's children, may well be proud 
of such a father^ for he has left behind him the savor 
of a name which time will not obscure, nor the ages 
blot omt, for 

' He was a man, take him for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again.' " 

Rev. John T. McMullen, next addressed the 
assembly. He said : 

yi y Christain friends. Though I have had yonr 
patient attention to day, through a long discourse, if 
my heart could speak now I would have volumes yet 
to say of my bdoved and lamented father, whose 
perishing body sleeps beneath that pile of splendid 
marble. Yon all know that I loved him, loved him 
as a son loves a father, for I never had but one father 
in the ministry, and that was Father Havens. 

^* When I learned that he was dead, I felt that I was 
an orphan in the ministry. For years he had been 
my counselor, my eonfident and guide, and I had 
trusted in his judgment with the simplicity of a child. 



347 



Though I was often with him. I never presumed t'> 
be his equal in the heroic purity of his christian 
or in any of the grand apostolic endowments of hi^ 
ministry. Indeed^ I may say he had but few equals 
in these respects anywhere^ for nature had graduated 
him to the first honors of his class^ and grace had 
ennobled him and placed him among the very talle-t 
aud mightiest of our ministry. But God lias taken 
him to himself, taken him fr-jin us all. But our los^ 
is his infinite gain. He has gone from us like the ripe 
fruit when it is gathered into the garner, and the grand 
ecstasies of the immortal world are now his inherit- 
ance forevermore.^' 

Such were the last funeral offerings paid to th^ 
memory of Father Havens. The tribute may b*:^ 
deemed a simple one^ but it was sincere. Xone left 
the sacred spot who had not felt it was good to be 
there. The place, the hour and the man had called 
up in every mind a train of thought which appeared! 
to have a celestial connection, and the communion had 
in it and about it some of the touches of the more 
beautiful and higher life. 

The philosophy was demonstrated, ^' Let him who 
will be the greatest among you be the servant of all. ' 
This is the Bible theorv of oreatness, and we know oi 
no other. This is the principle, indeed, of the divine 
greatness. Xo other can ever impart anything better 
than mere empty show. 

The truculency of servility may crown some men 
with an airy and temporary distinction, which the 
winds will w^histle away, and the throws of a brainier- 



348 



ambition may confer upon others the brief empire of 
a flattering rule^ but the laws of an immutable equity 
must continue to bound the limitations of all human 
ambition, for — 

There are distinctions that will live in Heaven, 

When time is a forgotten circumstance ; - 

The elevated brow of kings will lose 

The impress of regalia, and the slave 

Will wear his immortality as free 

Beside the crystal waters ; but the depth 

Of glory in the attributes of God, 

Will measure the capacities of mind ; 

And as the angels differ, will the ken 

Of gifted spirits glorify him more. 



FINIS. 




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